US chip export curbs stay in place despite Xi-Trump summit calm

US semiconductor export controls appeared to draw little public attention during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s historic state visit to Washington this week, even though most of the restrictions remain in place.

Chip chiefs had prominent seats, but no clear breakthrough

Jensen Huang and Lisa Su, the heads of US semiconductor chip giants Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), had prominent places at the White House state dinner on Thursday evening.

They were seated at the head table alongside the two presidents and their wives, described as among “the best seats in the house”.

What remains unclear is whether that access helped them make progress on their primary goal: restoring access to the Chinese market.

That goal faces entrenched opposition in both China and the US, according to the source material.

Why the issue took a back seat

The relative calm around the issue may be linked to China’s growing semiconductor self-reliance, though looming US measures could still test that position.

For now, the available signals suggest that US semiconductor chip export controls did not become a major sticking point at the summit.

The restrictions are still largely in force, but they were not directly mentioned in the readouts released so far by either Beijing or Washington.

Those readouts summarised the achievements of the Xi-Trump summit without making export controls a significant topic of debate.

What remains unresolved

The absence of direct public emphasis does not settle the question facing Nvidia and AMD.

Their central concern remains access to the Chinese market, and the source indicates that any restoration of that access would have to contend with resistance on both sides.

The summit therefore left a notable contrast: top US chip executives were visibly close to the centre of diplomacy, while their main commercial objective showed no clear sign of progress in the public accounts issued so far.

Source: South China Morning Post