Trump officials torpedoed Nvidia’s push to export AI chips to China

US President decided not to discuss matter with Chinese leader Xi after aides opposed company's request

- Lingling Wei, Amrith Ramkumar & Robbie Whelan

Greenlighting the export of Nvidia's Blackwell chips would be a seismic policy shift potentially giving China a technological accelerant.

(REUTERS)

Shortly before President Trump met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, an urgent issue emerged. Trump wanted to discuss a request by Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang to allow sales of a new generation of artificial-intelligence chips to China, current and former administration officials said.

Greenlighting the export of Nvidia's Blackwell chips would be a seismic policy shift potentially giving China, the U.S.'s biggest geopolitical competitor, a technological accelerant. Huangwho speaks to Trump often-has lobbied relentlessly to maintain access to the Chinese market.

As they prepared to meet Xi, top officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Trump the sales would threaten national security, saying they would boost China's AI data-center capabilities and backfire on the U.S., the officials said.

The U.S. was already preparing to make other concessions in the meeting with Xi, in exchange for Beijing allowing exports of rare-earth magnets. Others against the approval, the officials said, included U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who helped lead trade talks.

Faced with nearly unified opposition from his top advisers, Trump decided not to discuss the advanced Nvidia chips during his Oct. 30 meeting with Xi in Busan, South Korea, the officials said.

Trump's ultimate decision marked a victory for Rubio and other Trump advisers over Huang, leader of the world's most valuable public company. Exports of Blackwell chips to China are potentially worth tens of billions of dollars in sales and could help Nvidia keep Chinese AI companies hooked on Nvidia's technology.