In the moments leading up to the Trump-Xi meeting, the White House decided to remove discussions on exporting Nvidia’s high-end artificial intelligence chips.
According to the Wall Street Journal on Monday (November 3), U.S. chip company Nvidia pushed Trump to allow the sale of its Blackwell chips to China, but faced unanimous opposition from presidential advisers. Consequently, President Trump decided to table the discussion on exporting Blackwell chips during the meeting with Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping.
Reports cited current and former government officials who revealed that in preparation for the U.S.-China summit, several senior officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio informed the president that the sale of Blackwell chips would threaten U.S. national security. They argued that such a move would strengthen China’s artificial intelligence data center capabilities and ultimately have a detrimental impact on the United States.
Officials disclosed that U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also opposed approving the export of Nvidia’s high-end chips to China.
Facing nearly unanimous opposition from all senior advisers, the president decided not to discuss this chip during his meeting with Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea.
While returning from the meeting, the president confirmed that he discussed chip issues with the Chinese side, but Blackwell was not included in the conversation.
“There was indeed a discussion on the chip issue,” Trump said. “The Chinese will discuss purchasing chips with companies such as Nvidia… I will also communicate with Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang.”
“I have said that this is actually a matter between China and Nvidia, and we are playing the role of arbitrator or judge,” Trump added.
In a CBS “60 Minutes” interview aired on Sunday (2nd), the president stated that he would not allow the most advanced Blackwell chips to be sold to Chinese companies, but did not rule out the possibility of Chinese companies obtaining a less powerful version of the Blackwell chip.
It is estimated that the export sales of Blackwell chips to China could amount to billions of dollars and help Nvidia maintain China’s dependence on its technology.
Nvidia is awaiting approval from the U.S. government to introduce a lower-performance version of the Blackwell chip to the Chinese market.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai stated, “The president will listen to various views on policy issues, including those from top business leaders. The historic meeting between President Trump and Chairman Xi Jinping demonstrates that the only reason guiding his decision-making is what is in the best interest of the American people.”
The U.S. and China reached a one-year trade truce agreement last week, temporarily avoiding an escalation of tensions between the two countries and easing strained relations in a range of trade issues including semiconductors, rare earths, and soybeans.
For Xi Jinping, the summit did not achieve his key short-term goal of making concessions on U.S. chip bans, which could delay China’s technological ambitions. While Beijing’s long-term strategy is to achieve self-sufficiency and dominance in high-tech fields, ensuring access to advanced processors is crucial at present.
In August, the White House lifted the export ban on an old Nvidia chip to China, on the condition that the company hand over 15% of its China sales revenue to the U.S. government.
Soon after, the Chinese authorities advised companies not to purchase the chip. Nvidia stated that it had not sold any H20 chips in China since April, resulting in the loss of billions of dollars in sales.
Hawks in Congress and think tanks are against selling Nvidia’s high-end chips to China. They argue that this move could provide a technological booster to America’s biggest geopolitical competitor.