US-China AI Trade Tensions Persist Over Nvidia Blackwell Chips

The recent China-U.S. trade ceasefire offers a temporary pause on China's rare earth export controls, benefiting hardware manufacturers reliant on these materials, but it does not resolve the underlying issues or lift restrictions on AI chip exports, including Nvidia's advanced Blackwell chips. President Donald Trump confirmed that while semiconductor sales were discussed in talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Blackwell chips were explicitly excluded from the negotiation, signaling continued U.S. restrictions on this technology to curb China's AI advancements. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang expressed optimism about potential sales of Blackwell chips in China but acknowledged that ultimate approval rests with President Trump and U.S. government policy. Despite Nvidia's development of a modified Blackwell chip for the Chinese market, U.S. export controls remain firm, and China's semiconductor strategy is increasingly focused on domestic manufacturers like Huawei. The Blackwell architecture represents a significant leap in GPU performance and energy efficiency for AI workloads, but its rollout remains gradual amid supply constraints and geopolitical tensions. Overall, the trade discussions maintain current export limits, leaving Nvidia's top-tier AI chips off-limits to China, which continues to dominate the rare earth processing critical for semiconductor manufacturing.