High-end Nvidia chips may be sold to China as tech evolves, says Bessent
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US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said as tech evolves, Nvidia’s chips could become less advanced relatively quickly.
PHOTO: EPA
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WASHINGTON – US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested that the US eventually could allow high-end computer chips made by Nvidia to be sold to Chinese companies as he teased additional meetings between President Donald Trump and the Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2026.
Mr Bessent called Nvidia’s chips using the Blackwell design the “crown jewel” but said that the pace of technological change could make them less advanced relatively quickly, opening up the possibility of selling the chips to China.
“If we think about the Blackwell now, they’re the crown jewel,” Mr Bessent told CNBC on Nov 4 morning. “What you’re describing is actually the pace that the technology is moving, not the pace that the negotiations are moving. So there may be a case down the road.”
“I don’t know whether it’s 12 or 24 months,” Mr Bessent said. “Given the incredible innovation that goes on at Nvidia, where the Blackwell chips may be 2, 3, 4 down their chip stack in terms of efficacy, and at that point, they could be sold on.”
Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang told reporters last week that he hoped to sell chips from the company’s Blackwell lineup to customers in China, though he had no current plans to do so.
Mr Huang’s comments came a day after Mr Trump said he didn’t discuss the prospect of Blackwell chip sales
Following the Trump-Xi talks, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, asked whether Blackwell chip sales to China would be discussed more going forward, said “I don’t think that’s on the table right now.”
In the CNBC interview, Mr Bessent also suggested that Mr Trump and Mr Xi could meet in 2026 at a meeting of the Group of 20 nations to be hosted at the president’s golf resort in Doral, Florida, in December 2026, as well as at a meeting of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group in China in November.
Those meetings would be in addition to two state visits planned between the two nations in 2026.
“I think we’re going to have two state visits next year,” Mr Bessent said. “President Trump will be going to Beijing and Xi will be coming to the US. And they may also see each other at the G-20 in Doral and then the APEC conference in Shenzhen in November.”
“The US-China relationship is on a much more even keel now,” he added. BLOOMBERG
