Trump and Xi ease trade tensions, but Nvidia still can't sell Blackwell in China

US President did discuss chip exports with his counterpart, but made no breakthroughs

Talks between US President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea yielded a modest thaw, with the two agreeing to trim tariffs and pause new rare-earth export curbs. But whether Nvidia can sell its latest GPUs to China remains an open question.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said the US would reduce tariffs on Chinese imports by 10 percentage points to a total of about 47 percent. The cut, Trump explained, comes from the US halving its tariff on China over claims the country has been exporting fentanyl to the US, which Xi apparently promised to Trump he would work to stop. Trump previously threatened tariffs on China as high as 145 percent, but has been anything but consistent on the matter. 

China also promised to pause its most recent round of restrictions on the use of its rare earth resources issued earlier this month. Those rules were twofold, with one requiring foreign companies that use Chinese-origin rare earths to obtain licenses to export items containing them, and a second placing stricter controls on the export of technology related to rare-earth mining and processing. 

According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, which confirmed Trump's statements in a press release, the pause will last for one year to "study and refine specific plans," so this is more of a temporary reprieve than the end of the trade conflict. 

Nvidia gets a nod, but no specifics

Despite President Trump claiming earlier this week that he'd be discussing the export of Nvidia Blackwell GPUs, that discussion didn't materialize, Trump told reporters on the presidential jet - though he did admit Nvidia was discussed by the two leaders. 

"We did discuss chips," Trump said, per Bloomberg. "They're going to be talking to Nvidia and others about taking chips."

As for what chips, "we're not talking about the Blackwell," Trump added, despite the President's prior consideration of allowing export of reduced-capacity Blackwell chips to China.

Nvidia has been stuck in the middle of Trump and Xi's trade conflict practically since the US president took office for his second term, with the company facing US limits on exports of advanced AI chips to China, an antitrust probe by Beijing regulators, reported bans on Nvidia chip purchases by major Chinese tech firms, and a temporary US licensing freeze on its H20 processors.

How Nvidia may benefit from this latest round of talks is still unclear, but for CEO Jensen Huang, at least his company is being thought about as talks continue.

We reached out to the White House to get more specifics on the timeline for the tariff reductions and what Trump and Xi discussed about Nvidia, but we didn't hear back; instead, we received an automated message blaming the government shutdown on Democrats and saying the White House press office is operating at reduced capacity. ®