U.S. President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese language counterpart Xi Jinping may hinge on two key tech flashpoints — important minerals and market entry for American firms.
The much-anticipated bilateral assembly between the 2 nations that have been locked in a tariff standoff only a 12 months in the past started on Thursday, with heat phrases exchanged between the 2 leaders. The discussions will proceed into Friday and are anticipated to cowl geopolitics in Taiwan and Iran, in addition to key commerce subjects.
Nevertheless it’s points regarding U.S. and Chinese language tech sectors that may very well be essential factors of debate and competition, with a roster of key American executives together with Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Tesla’s Elon Musk and Apple’s Tim Cook dinner becoming a member of Trump on the airplane.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk gestures subsequent to Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ambassador to China David Perdue stand previous to a welcome ceremony for U.S. President Donald Trump on the Nice Corridor of the Folks on Might 14, 2026 in Beijing, China.
Alex Wong | Getty Photographs Information | Getty Photographs
“What’s at stake is not only one journey or one headline however the route of AI provide chains, the form of future export controls, and the diploma to which US chip management stays monetizable in China,” Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives stated in a word from Wednesday.
“The presence of Huang, Musk, Cook dinner, and others indicators that know-how and commerce are among the many high US priorities going into the conferences,” he added.
Market entry
Entry to the world’s second-largest economic system for U.S. tech firms is a key focus for Trump, with the U.S. president commenting that opening up China for U.S. companies can be his “first request” to Xi.
Beijing welcomed deeper industrial engagement from the U.S., Xi stated on Thursday, and “China’s door to opening up will solely open wider.”
The cordial ambiance marks a pointy shift from relations simply over a 12 months in the past, when China grew to become the primary main economic system to retaliate towards Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs in April 2025.
Guidelines governing Nvidia’s sale of superior AI chips to China are a key concern. Shortly after Trump met Xi on Thursday, Reuters reported that Washington had cleared gross sales of Nvidia’s H200 AI chips to a number of main Chinese language know-how companies, citing three individuals accustomed to the matter.
“We consider Nvidia remains to be urgent the U.S. authorities to permit the corporate to promote into China,” Brian Colello, senior fairness analyst at Morningstar, informed CNBC on Thursday. “We suspect that Nvidia want to negotiate an answer the place it will possibly promote some gear into China, in order that it’s a part of the Chinese language AI stack.”
However a licensing deal for Nvidia’s H200 chips may very well be “politically explosive” and set off a “fierce backlash from China hawks” in Congress, Heidi Crebo-Rediker, senior fellow on the Council on International Relations, informed CNBC.
“One doable consequence will not be a clear reopening of the China market, however a conditional, carefully managed channel for Nvidia gross sales, maybe with safeguards, charges or limits,” she added.
Different tech execs are seemingly eyeing market alternatives as properly.
“The U.S. tech executives becoming a member of Trump make for an all-star listing, and their collective goals seem like organising a so-called Board of Commerce and Board of Funding with China,” Lauryn Williams, deputy director at suppose tank the Middle for Strategic and Worldwide Research, informed CNBC, referring to a proposed physique to handle commerce relations between the nations.
Tesla will seemingly need full self-driving approval in China, Kyle Chan, a overseas coverage fellow on the Brookings Establishment, informed CNBC. “Apple and Meta might want offers with provide chain companions in China for his or her client merchandise.”
Tesla, Apple and Meta have been approached for remark.
Apple and Tesla would profit much less from a “headline breakthrough than from a calmer working setting,” stated Crebo-Rediker, as a result of their China publicity runs by means of factories, customers, regulators and rivals.
Vital minerals
One other space of potential competition is China’s overwhelming management over the important and rare-earth minerals markets. Beijing was answerable for 59% of the world’s uncommon earths mining and 91% of its refining in 2024, in keeping with the Worldwide Power Company.
“China’s export controls on uncommon earths and magnets are a strong supply of leverage for Beijing,” Chan stated.
“Trump may ask Xi to grant normal licenses for American industrial customers to safe uncommon earth provides,” he added. “Even with an settlement over licenses, China’s management over uncommon earths will seemingly stay a supply of potential leverage.”
China’s chokehold on important and uncommon earth minerals was a key issue within the nation’s retaliation towards U.S. tariffs in 2025, with Beijing curbing some exports to the U.S, earlier than a commerce truce got here into impact.
Whereas the important and uncommon earth mineral concern stays “acute” there may very well be a deal across the U.S. enjoyable choose export chip controls in return for progress in that space, Paul Triolo, a associate at U.S. advisory agency Albright Stonebridge Group, stated. However, he added, the “political ambiance” within the U.S. would make that tough.
The “best-case consequence” can be an extension of the 2025 commerce truce, which noticed tariffs lowered between the nations, stated Crebo-Rediker. Even underneath that truce, nevertheless, China’s export controls on particular heavy uncommon earths and magnets weren’t absolutely reversed, she added.
“That places the U.S. administration on the again foot,” Crebo-Rediker informed CNBC. “The U.S. and its allies can’t out-mine, out-process or outspend China rapidly sufficient to rebuild resilience within the close to time period.”
