Nvidia shares rose more than 3.5% in premarket early Wednesday, bringing the AI chip maker’s market capitalization to $5 trillion, after President Donald Trump said he will discuss export controls on the company’s advanced Blackwell chips with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, when the two leaders meet on Thursday in a bid to ease trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
Key data
Nvidia shares rose 3.8% to $208.77 in premarket trading Wednesday morning, continuing a rally from the previous day, when shares closed nearly 5% higher.
If the stock’s rise continues when markets open on Wednesday, Nvidia will become the first company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion.
The AI chip maker’s market capitalization stood at just under $4.9 trillion when markets closed on Tuesday.
What did Trump say about Nvidia and China?
While speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday, Trump was asked if he had reached a deal with Xi to potentially allow the export of Nvidia’s flagship Blackwell chips, which are currently subject to export controls, to China as part of a trade deal. The president said, “We’ll talk about Blackwells” while praising Nvidia’s chip, calling it “super duper.” Trump called Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang “amazing” and added that Blackwell chips are “probably 10 years ahead of any other chip.”
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What do we know about Nvidia chips shipping to China?
In August, the Financial Times reported that the US government had begun licensing Nvidia to export its H20 AI chips, a scaled-down version of its H100 chip designed to comply with export rules in China. The H20 and H100 chips are part of Nvidia’s Hopper AI chip line, which is a generation older than the cutting-edge Blackwell chips. However, these export licenses were dependent on Nvidia paying the US government a 15% cut of all H20 sales to China. Earlier this week, during the company’s Annual GPU Technology Conference, Nvidia’s CEO said: “The president has given us the license to ship to China, but China has prevented us from shipping to China… They have made it very clear that they do not want Nvidia to be there right now.” China has reportedly banned its tech companies from purchasing Nvidia chips, but it is unclear whether the ban will remain in place if Trump agrees to allow shipments of Nvidia’s flagship hardware to the country.
What did we learn from Nvidia’s Gtc event in DC?
Nvidia held its annual GPU Technology Conference for the first time in Washington DC this week, and Huang gave the event’s keynote address on Tuesday. During the keynote speech, the Nvidia CEO praised Trump and his administration, saying the president deserves “enormous credit” for his efforts to boost energy development in the US. “His recognition of that and putting the weight of the nation behind pro-energy growth completely changed the game. If this hadn’t happened, we could have been in a bad situation, and I want to thank President Trump for that.” Huang’s speech also mentioned that Nvidia makes Blackwell chips at the TSMC plant in Arizona, saying, “We’re manufacturing in America again. It’s incredible. The first thing President Trump asked me to do is bring manufacturing back… because it’s necessary for national security… (and) because we want the jobs… And nine months later… we’re now manufacturing in full production, Blackwell (chips) in Arizona.”
Tangent
Trump also told reporters that he also plans to reduce the 20% tariffs he imposed on China for its export of chemicals used to make the drug. “I hope to reduce that because I think they can help us with the fentanyl situation. We have to get rid of it,” Trump said. The president imposed these sweeping levies on Chinese imports, which are in addition to other tariffs, earlier this year, claiming that Beijing was not doing enough to crack down on the flow to the US of chemical ingredients needed to make the synthetic opioid.
This article was originally published in Forbes US
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