During a recent summit between former U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, officials made no progress on AI regulation or export controls, according to reports. The two sides extended a fragile trade truce for only two months, while analysts warn that upcoming U.S. controls could collapse the arrangement and provoke China to retaliate by cutting off rare‑earth exports.
In the background of these uncertain talks, Nvidia appears to have secured a significant advantage. China is reportedly considering easing restrictions that currently bar the import of certain Nvidia chips, potentially allowing its largest AI firms to acquire millions more of the company’s banned components over the next year.
Sources familiar with the discussions told The Information that the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has asked Alibaba and ByteDance to outline plans to purchase Nvidia’s RTX Pro 5500 chips. Although the RTX Pro 5500 is marketed as a gaming processor, Chinese authorities are interested in how the chips might be repurposed for server use to support the country’s most demanding AI models.
The move could give Chinese AI developers a new source of high‑performance hardware, while also raising concerns about the spread of advanced semiconductor technology. The situation remains fluid as both sides weigh the implications of potential export controls and trade retaliation.
<small>Source: Ars Technica — read the original story there.</small>
