*

China opposes U.S. export controls on high-end Nvidia AI

chips

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Trump praises state-of-the-art Blackwell as "super-duper

chip"

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Trump expected to meet Nvidia ( NVDA ) CEO on Wednesday

(Adds context about U.S.-China chip tensions, Nvidia ( NVDA ) and its

CEO Huang in paragraphs 7-11)

By Trevor Hunnicutt and Eduardo Baptista

AIR FORCE ONE/GYEONGJU, South Korea Oct 29 (Reuters) -

U .S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he will speak to

Chinese President Xi Jinping about Nvidia's ( NVDA )

state-of-the-art Blackwell artificial intelligence chip at their

expected meeting on Thursday.

Sales of the U.S. firm's high-end AI chips to China, which

accounted for 13% of its revenue in the past financial year,

have been a key sticking point in protracted trade talks between

the world's two largest economies this year.

Beijing has long been irked by Washington's export controls

that ban Nvidia ( NVDA ) from selling its most advanced AI chips to

China. The U.S. has justified these restrictions by alleging the

Chinese military would use the chips to increase its

capabilities.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to

Gyeongju, South Korea, Trump praised Nvidia's ( NVDA ) current flagship

Blackwell model as the "super-duper chip" and said he might

speak to Xi about it, without elaborating.

"I think we may be talking about that with President Xi,"

Trump said, adding he was "very optimistic" about his meeting

with Xi, the first since he returned to the White House.

UNCERTAIN CHIP EXPORT CONTROLS

The second Trump administration has swung back and forth on

allowing Nvidia's ( NVDA ) advanced chips into China, vacillating on

whether access would make its superpower rival more dependent on

the U.S. technology or give its military and tech companies a

competitive boost.

In April, it ordered Nvidia ( NVDA ) to stop sales of the H20 chip,

made specifically for the Chinese market, prompting the company

to prepare a less powerful version that was nevertheless based

on its newest Blackwell architecture.

Washington lifted the H20 sales ban three months later as

part of negotiations with China on rare earths exports.

Trump also said in August he would allow Nvidia ( NVDA ) to sell its

H20 chips to China in exchange for the U.S. government receiving

a 15% cut of the company's sales of some advanced chips in that

country, opening the door to allowing the firm to sell more

powerful chips than the H20 model.

But even after the revenue sharing deal, Nvidia ( NVDA ) said it has

not sent any H20 chips to China, as the U.S. has yet to come up

with rules on how to get the payment and China has discouraged

domestic firms from purchasing the California-based company's

chips.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) CEO Jensen Huang, who is expected to meet Trump on

Wednesday and discuss the Blackwell, said on Tuesday his company

had not applied for U.S. export licenses to send its newest

chips to China because of the Chinese position.

"They've made it very clear that they don't want Nvidia ( NVDA ) to

be there right now," he said during the company's developers'

event, adding it needs access to the China market to fund

U.S.-based research and development.

"I hope that will change in the future because I think China

is a very important market."

Beijing has put pressure on Chinese firms to buy and further

develop domestic chips in response to U.S. export controls

targeting the sale of Nvidia ( NVDA ) chips to China.

Despite that pressure, Chinese developers still want

Nvidia's ( NVDA ) chips due to constrained supplies of products from

domestic rivals such as Huawei, Reuters has previously reported.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Eduardo Baptista; Writing by

Eduardo Baptista; Editing by Miyoung Kim, Stephen Coates and

Muralikumar Anantharaman)