Trump and Nvidia CEO discuss DeepSeek, AI chip exports during meeting, source says

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump and CEO of Nvidia Jensen Huang discussed DeepSeek -- the Chinese company whose AI model’s performance rocked the tech world -- and tightening AI chip exports during their meeting at the White House on Friday, a source with knowledge of the matter said.

Trump did not provide details of the meeting but called Huang a “gentleman”.

“I can’t say what’s gonna happen. We had a meeting. It was a good meeting,” Trump said.

The Friday afternoon meeting came as the government is set to further restrict AI chip exports this spring to ensure advanced computing power remains in the United States and among its allies, while looking for more ways to block China’s access.

“We appreciated the opportunity to meet with President Trump and discuss semiconductors and AI policy,” an Nvidia spokesperson said in a statement. “Jensen and the President discussed the importance of strengthening US technology and AI leadership.”

The source with knowledge of the meeting between the president and the CEO of the Santa Clara, Calif-based company, which makes the most advanced AI chips, said it was set up before DeepSeek rocked the tech world.

The source also said the president thinks the Chinese company’s emergence means “US companies don’t have to spend a ton of money building a low-cost (AI) alternative.”

The meeting took place as worries are mounting that China is catching up to the United States in AI development. China’s DeepSeek last week launched a free assistant it says uses less data at a fraction of the cost of US models. Within days, DeepSeek became the most downloaded app in Apple’s App Store and stirred concerns about the United States’ lead in AI, sparking a rout that wiped around $1 trillion off US technology stocks. At one point, shares of Nvidia, a top producer of AI chips, fell 17 per cent. The Trump administration is considering tightening restrictions on Nvidia’s sales of its H20 chips designed for the China market, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

Conversations among Trump officials to restrict shipments of those chips to China are in early stages, the sources said, but the idea has been under consideration since Democratic former President Joe Biden’s administration. H20 chips can be used to run AI software and were designed to comply with existing US curbs on shipments to China implemented by Biden. Two US lawmakers are also calling for more restrictions on exports of Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips.

Republican John Moolenaar and Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, who lead the House of Representatives Select Committee on China, asked for the move as part of a Commerce and State Department-led review ordered by Trump to scrutinise the US export control system in light of “developments involving strategic adversaries”. In 2022, the Biden administration restricted sales of Nvidia’s most powerful AI chip, the H100, to China.