Trump may discuss Nvidia’s Blackwell AI chips with Xi Jinping

President Donald Trump indicated he may discuss Nvidia’s advanced Blackwell AI chips with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their upcoming meeting, calling them “super duper” chips that put the U.S. “about 10 years ahead of anybody else.” The potential diplomatic discussion comes as Nvidia, the world’s leading AI chip manufacturer, faces complete exclusion from the Chinese market, with Beijing blocking its companies from importing the chipmaker’s products despite previous U.S. export restrictions.

What you should know: Trump specifically referenced Nvidia’s Blackwell processors during a Wednesday media briefing ahead of his Thursday meeting with Xi.

• “We’ll be speaking about Blackwell, it’s the super duper chip,” Trump said, appearing to reference the GB200 Grace Blackwell Superchip.
• The Blackwell architecture represents Nvidia’s latest generation of AI chips, also called graphics processing units, used to train and run large language models like ChatGPT.
• Trump suggested he might allow a downgraded version of Blackwell chips into the Chinese market.

The big picture: Nvidia’s relationship with China has become increasingly complex amid escalating trade tensions and export controls.

• Export controls have long prevented Nvidia from selling its most advanced AI chips to China.
• Washington had previously rolled back restrictions on Nvidia’s made-for-China H20 chips in July.
• However, Beijing later stepped in to prevent its companies from importing any Nvidia chips.

Current market status: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently confirmed the company is completely shut out of the Chinese market.

• The company is currently “100% out of China” and has no market share there, according to Huang.
• Many experts believe Beijing is using Nvidia’s market access as leverage in trade negotiations with the Trump administration.

What they’re saying: Trump emphasized American technological superiority in semiconductor manufacturing.

• “That’s our country. We’re about 10 years ahead of anybody else in chips — in the highly sophisticated chips,” he said.
• “I think we may be talking about that with President Xi.”