Trump And Nvidia CEO Discuss DeepSek And Export AI Chips In A Meeting At The White House

US President Donadl Trump again wants to limit Nvidia's exports to China (photo: dock. investing.com)

JAKARTA The President of the United States, Donald Trump, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang discussed Chinese company DeepSeeek and the AI chip export policy at a meeting at the White House on Friday, January 21.

Trump did not provide specific details about the content of the meeting, but called Huang a "good man."

"I can't say what will happen. We had a meeting. It was a good meeting," Trump told reporters.

The meeting took place amid the US government's efforts to further tighten exports of the AI chip this spring to ensure advanced computing power remains in the United States and its allies, as well as look for further ways to limit China's access.

"We appreciate the opportunity to meet with President Trump and discuss semiconductor and AI policies," a Nvidia spokesperson said in a statement. "Jensen and the President discussed the importance of strengthening US technology and AI leadership."

Sources familiar with the meeting said that the meeting had been scheduled before DeepSeeek rocked the tech world. The source also revealed that Trump is of the view that the Chinese company's emergence means "US companies don't have to spend much money to build low-cost AI alternatives."

The concern that China is increasingly pursuing its lag in AI development is increasing. Last week, DeepSek launched a free assistant that is claimed to use less data at a much lower cost than the US AI model.

In a matter of days, DeepSeek became the most downloaded app on Apple's App Store, sparking concerns over the dominance of US AI. This incident caused the drop in the value of US technology stocks, with a total loss of around $1 trillion. Nvidia shares, the main manufacturer of AI chips, fell by 17%.

The Trump administration is now considering tightening restrictions on the sale of Nvidia H20 chips designed for the Chinese market, according to three sources familiar with the policy. Internal government discussions on chip restrictions are still in its early stages, but this discussion has been under consideration since the era of President Joe Biden.

The H20 chip can be used to run AI software and is designed to comply with existing US export rules. Previously, in 2022, the Biden administration limited sales of the most powerful AI chips from Nvidia, H100, to China.

In response, Nvidia released a new variant, H800, which is still below the export threshold for the Chinese market. However, the H800 chip was again limited in 2023, and Nvidia then developed H20.

Two US lawmakers also called for further restrictions on Nvidia's AI chip exports. John Moolenaar of Republican Party and Democratic King Krishna Moorthi asked for this step as part of a review led by the Department of Commerce and the US State Department to evaluate the US export control system against "strategic competitors."

Meanwhile, the US Department of Commerce is investigating whether DeepSek has used a US chip banned from being shipped to China. If a violation is found, there could be further sanctions imposed on companies doing business with DeepSek.