The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. Secretary of State Rubio and other officials opposed NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang’s lobbying of President Trump to relax restrictions on chip exports to China, which resulted in the Trump-Xi meeting not discussing NVIDIA Blackwell chips. Trump frequently consults Huang and once changed his policy to allow H-20 chip sales to resume in China, but this time opposition officials prevailed.

Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA (Nvidia), the overlord of artificial intelligence chips, believes that Washington should consider lifting controls on Chinese chips. This policy will also harm the United States. Before the talks between Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea, there was renewed talk of relaxing the ban on NVIDIA Blackwell artificial intelligence chips, but this issue was not mentioned in the Trump-Xi meeting.

The Wall Street Journal quoted several current and former U.S. officials as saying that Trump was interested in discussing the possibility of NVIDIA selling new artificial intelligence chips to China proposed by Huang Jen-Hsun before the meeting between the U.S. and Chinese heads of state. However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Trump that this would strengthen China’s AI data center capabilities, threaten U.S. national security, and have the opposite effect.

Before the talks, the United States was prepared to make several concessions for rare earths, but Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick who attended the negotiations also opposed opening up. Due to joint opposition from senior officials, Trump decided not to discuss the Blackwell artificial intelligence chip at the Trump-Xi meeting.

Trump’s final decision showed that officials including Rubio were better than Huang Jen-Hsun this round. NVIDIA hopes that Chinese companies will use NVIDIA chip systems. Blackwell may have a market of tens of billions of dollars in China. Huang Renxun actively lobbied the White House to release the lower-end Blackwell.

White House spokesman Kush Desai said that Trump listens to various insider information provided by business leaders when deciding on policies. The historical meeting between Trump and Xi confirmed that the best interests of the American people are the only consideration in his decision-making.

Huang Renxun earlier expressed in Washington that he was worried that the United States would cede the AI market to China in the long term and hoped that Trump would help find a solution. NVIDIA's current situation is very embarrassing.

After the Trump-Xi meeting, the two sides failed to reach an important agreement, and Xi Jinping also failed to persuade the United States to make concessions on chips. Beijing's long-term strategy focuses on high-tech self-sufficiency. Obtaining high-end processors is crucial to shorten research and development time. Failure to obtain high-end chips made in the United States will affect development progress.

Trump said in August that he might agree to release Blackwell with a 30% to 50% reduction in functionality. NVIDIA has not yet announced what type of Blackwell system it will develop for the Chinese market, but people familiar with the matter pointed out that if policies permit, NVIDIA can design it in only 2 to 3 months.

The U.S. Congress and some think tanks opposed NVIDIA’s lobbying efforts in Congress to open up the Chinese market for chip exports. Politicians pointed out that Huang Jen-Hsun once said in a CNN interview that “it doesn’t matter who wins in the AI competition.” This video was circulated in Washington political circles.

The "Special Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Communist Party of China" of the House of Representatives criticized Huang Jen-Hsun's statement as "dangerous and naive." The committee likened the artificial intelligence competition to the Cold War and believed that Huang Jen-Hsun's statement was like "in the nuclear arms race, it does not matter that the United States lost to the Soviet Union."

Further reading: Talking about NVIDIA Blackwell chips, Trump: He won’t let others get them After the Sichuan-Xi meeting, Huang Renxun: Not sure whether it will help NVIDIA return to China Trump denies discussing Blackwell chip exports with Xi Jinping