Nvidia Chip Sales to China Under Scrutiny as Trump-Xi AI Talks Stall

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has asked Alibaba and ByteDance to submit plans for purchasing Nvidia's RTX Pro 5500 chips, according to sources who spoke to The Information. Although these are gaming chips, Beijing wants to know how the companies intend to deploy them, with the expectation that the hardware could be installed in servers to run the country's most demanding AI models. The request signals that China may relax restrictions and permit some of its largest AI firms to import millions of banned Nvidia chips over the next year. The development unfolded against the backdrop of a recent summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping that produced little movement on AI regulation. Export controls were not discussed, neither side showed interest in concessions, and an already fragile trade truce was extended for only two months. Analysts expect that impending US controls could quickly end the truce and prompt China to retaliate by cutting off rare earth exports. Nvidia's potential gain stands out amid the shaky negotiations, but experts remain concerned about the company's influence over Trump and the implications for AI chip sales in China.