Trump-Xi Summit Raises Questions on Chip Exports and Rare Earths as Tech CEOs Join Beijing Delegation

President Donald Trump's May 14 summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing drew an unusually large contingent of American technology executives, underscoring the centrality of semiconductor access, critical minerals, and market entry to the two countries' ongoing trade negotiations.

Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Tesla's Elon Musk, and Apple's Tim Cook were all aboard the roughly 20-hour flight from Alaska to China on Wednesday, along with executives from Meta, Micron, Qualcomm, and Coherent, according to a U.S. Trade Representative briefing.

The business leaders were given a direct audience with both heads of state. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the executives had the "opportunity yesterday in a meeting with President Trump and President Xi to come in and talk a little bit about their companies," adding that Huang was specifically present.

Despite the high-profile attendance of Nvidia's chief, Greer confirmed that chip export controls were not addressed during the bilateral meeting. He made the remarks in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Friday.

Washington had, however, cleared sales of Nvidia's H200 AI chips to several major Chinese technology firms ahead of the visit, according to three people familiar with the matter. The prospect of a formal licensing arrangement has drawn concern from some policy analysts. Heidi Crebo-Rediker, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told CNBC earlier in the week that such a deal would be "politically explosive" and trigger a "fierce backlash from China hawks" in Congress.

On the Chinese side, appetite for U.S. chips remains complicated. "As to whether the Chinese are going to buy [U.S. chips] or not, they're making their own determinations," Greer said. "They're very committed to domestic production, they often see U.S. high tech as a threat to them."

Access to critical and rare earth minerals — a sector where China holds dominant global market share — was another focal point heading into the summit. Beijing had previously curbed some exports of those materials as part of its retaliation against U.S. tariffs in 2025, before a trade truce took effect.

That truce, which Greer described as "solid," runs through this fall. Asked whether it would be extended, Greer offered a measured response. "We'll see about that," he said, while noting a willingness on both sides to continue if the arrangement continued to benefit each country. He added that rare earth flows from China had come up to "better levels, sometimes it's slow."

Crebo-Rediker called an extension of that agreement the "best-case outcome" for U.S. access to the materials, warning that "the U.S. and its allies cannot out-mine, out-process or outspend China quickly enough to rebuild resilience in the near term."

On the sidelines, Xi told American CEOs that the door to business in China will "open wider," state-backed newspaper Xinhua reported. The statement was welcomed by the executives in attendance, though the practical implications for companies seeking to expand operations in China remain to be seen.

Separately, White House staff and the traveling press corps discarded all materials distributed by Chinese officials — including press credentials and burner phones provided by White House staff — before departing Beijing on Air Force One on Friday, according to the White House press pool, reflecting standard U.S. government security protocols during foreign travel.

Negotiations over rare earth access are expected to continue well into the summer, with the possibility of a return visit by Xi to the United States in September potentially keeping several of the summit's unresolved issues on the agenda.

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