Trump To Discuss Nvidia's 'Super-Duper' AI Chip With Xi Jinping

JAKARTA - The President of the United States, Donald Trump, said on Wednesday, October 29 that he plans to talk to Chinese President Xi Jinping regarding Nvidia's latest artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell Superchip, in their meeting scheduled for Thursday, October 30.

The sale of high-end US-based AI chips to China became a sensitive issue in the prolonged trade negotiations between the world's two largest economies. Beijing continues to oppose Washington's export restriction policy that prohibits Nvidia from selling its most advanced AI chips to China, while the US argues that the technology has the potential to be used by the Chinese military to strengthen its defense capabilities.

Speaking to reporters aboard the Air Force One presidential plane on their way to Gyeongju, South Korea, Trump praised Nvidia's Blackwell chip as a super-super chip and hinted at discussing it with Xi.

"I think we will talk about that with President Xi," he said, adding that he was "very optimistic" about the meeting which would be his first meeting since Trump returned to the White House.

The Blackwell chip has become a symbol of the supremacy of American AI technology, with computational capabilities far beyond the previous generation. However, the export of this chip to China has become a geopolitical attractor. In May, Reuters reported that Nvidia was preparing a weaker and cheaper version of the chip specifically for the Chinese market compromise efforts amid a strict export ban from the US government.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang previously confirmed that his company had not applied for an export license for the latest generation of chips due to the official position of the Chinese government. They are very clear that they don't want Nvidia to be there right now," he said at the Nvidia developer conference. I hope the situation can change because China is a very important market.

The US government's stance on chip exports to China has indeed frequently changed between wanting to maintain technology dominance and worrying that China's access to advanced chips will actually strengthen its military rivals.

In response, Beijing pressured domestic companies to buy and develop local-made chips, especially from Huawei. However, many Chinese developers are still eyeing Nvidia chips as supplies from domestic producers are still limited and its performance has not been able to match.

Trump and Xi's meeting this week is expected to be an important moment in determining the direction of US Technological Relations, particularly regarding the future of AI chip trading the main component in the global race towards dominance of artificial intelligence.