Trump Not Expected to Raise Nvidia Spy Probe With Xi; Chip Controls Off the Table

"In all of our discussions and negotiations with the Chinese, we do not negotiate American export controls," one of the officials said. The official described the controls as national security matters set within the administration and its interagency process, and said the issue was not expected to come up during the trip. "The situation with Nvidia should not really have any bearing on the trip," a senior official said.

The summit comes days after Huang resigned on November 12, following reports of a relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Megaspeed. The Singapore-based Nvidia customer is suspected by US intelligence officials of having ties to China's Ministry of State Security. Beijing's foreign ministry has called the allegations "entirely groundless, speculative and intended to smear and malign China", according to Al Jazeera. The US Justice Department has not reached a conclusion on her ties to Beijing, Reuters reported. Megaspeed has said she left the company in August 2025.

The Shenzhen meeting takes place on the sidelines of the APEC summit, which brings together 21 economies on November 18 and 19. Trump and Xi are due to hold bilateral talks on November 19, and a three-way meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is planned to close Trump's China visit, White House spokesperson Olivia Wales told reporters. A senior official said no agreement was expected from that session, calling it an "entry point" with the reduction of nuclear arsenals a key topic.

Elon Musk is the only business leader in the president's official delegation, according to a senior official, though he will not take part in official meetings. Other American executives will attend in their own capacity.

At home, the pressure continues. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on November 13 that the Treasury, State and Defense departments had backed placing Megaspeed under export controls months earlier, that final authority rested with the Commerce Department, and that he was frustrated no action had been taken, the Seoul Economic Daily reported. On Sunday, Bessent told Fox News that Nvidia's board should hire an outside chief executive and that he wanted answers within 10 days on whether the company had pushed sales that may have been illicit. That deadline runs past the summit.

Bessent also said new laws were unnecessary. "We have all the rules we need; we just need them enforced," he said, according to Al Jazeera. That puts him at odds with lawmakers including Republican Senator Jim Banks and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who want to use the annual defence bill to close loopholes Chinese companies use to obtain advanced US-designed chips.

The administration is weighing its own fixes. According to the Associated Press, options include tighter export licensing procedures and limits on remote access by Chinese companies to advanced US chips, which would cover Chinese firms renting Nvidia hardware in overseas data centres.