Trump Eyes Nvidia Chips in Xi Meeting

President Donald Trump indicated during a media briefing on Wednesday that Nvidia’s advanced AI chips could be a topic of discussion with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their scheduled meeting on Thursday.

Responding to questions about the high-stakes meeting, Trump specifically mentioned Nvidia’s high-end processors. “We’ll be speaking about Blackwell, it’s the super duper chip,” he stated. It’s widely understood that “super duper chip” refers to the GB200 Grace Blackwell Superchip, Nvidia’s most cutting-edge AI offering. This chip headlines Nvidia’s Blackwell architecture, the latest generation of GPUs (graphics processing units) designed for training and deploying large language models (LLMs).

Trump further added that Nvidia’s Blackwell chips were significantly ahead of competitor offerings, claiming their technology was nearly a decade ahead of anyone in the market. “That’s our country. We’re about 10 years ahead of anybody else in chips—in the highly sophisticated chips. I think we may be talking about that with President Xi.”

These remarks come at a crucial juncture for Nvidia, particularly in the context of its relationship with China, previously a major revenue source. Existing export controls have long restricted the sale of its most advanced AI technology to China. While restrictions on less sophisticated, China-specific chips like the H20 were previously relaxed last July, allowing Nvidia to resume sales, the landscape has shifted dramatically.

Trump suggested he may be open to allowing a downgraded version of Nvidia’s Blackwell AI processors into the Chinese market. However, a recent intervention by Beijing has disrupted this approach.

In a somewhat unexpected turn, China has recently blocked domestic firms from importing Nvidia’s chips; citing national security issues related to Nvidia’s technology. As a result, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang noted earlier this month that the company currently has “100% out of China” at the moment, has experiencing no market share in that region. The ban underscores the sensitive intersection of technology, national security, and economic competition between the U.S. and China.

Industry analysts speculate that the Chinese ban might be a temporary tactic, positioning access to its vast market as leverage in trade negotiations with the Trump administration. While Trump’s comments suggest openness to discussing high-end Blackwell chips, observers expect that any potential agreement would more likely involve a less advanced version.

Back in August, Reuters reported Nvidia was actively developing a specific chip for the Chinese market, provisionally named the B30A. This chip, designed around the Blackwell architecture, would reportedly offer higher performance than the previously available H20. This move could have allowed Nvidia to compete more effectively against rising domestic players like Huawei, as China intensifies its drive to create a self-reliant AI ecosystem. However, the current ban throws this strategy into uncertainty.

Semiconductor industry analysts have warned that re-authorizing shipments of H20 chips, or approving a pathway for the B30A, could negatively impact Washington’s ongoing strategy to limit China’s access to high-performance computing power, first initiated in 2022. Such measures could inadvertently bolster China’s entire AI ecosystem.

A recent report by the Institute for Progress emphasized that enabling B30A exports to China would significantly diminish America’s current advantage AI computing prowess.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, a vocal opponent of U.S. restrictions on chip exports, is scheduled to be in South Korea concurrently with Trump. Huang intends to make announcements with South Korean partners that he hopes will be “delightful to the people of Korea and really delightful to President Trump.” These announcements could potentially involve partnerships focused on expanding Nvidia’s presence in the South Korean AI market and mitigating the loss of access to the Chinese market.