(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump met Friday with Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang at the White House as the US prepares tariffs on semiconductors, weighs the fate of a chip subsidy program and probes whether Chinese AI startup DeepSeek skirted export controls to obtain the company’s products.
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Chip tariffs would weigh heavily on Nvidia, which relies on overseas partners to manufacture its semiconductors. Trump told reporters he’d had a good meeting with Huang, but insisted “eventually we’re going to put tariffs on chips.”
In response to a question about the potential for more restrictions on chip exports to China, the president said he will move forward with tariffs. Current limitations on shipping to China take the form of license requirements administered by the Department of Commerce.
An Nvidia spokesperson said Huang “appreciated the opportunity to meet with President Trump and discuss semiconductors and AI policy.” The two talked about “the importance of strengthening US technology and AI leadership,” the spokesperson said.
The meeting came at the end of a rocky week for Nvidia, the top maker of chips to power artificial intelligence workloads. DeepSeek released its R1 model, which is seen as competitive with chatbots from other companies at a fraction of the cost. That raised questions about the billions in planned spending to develop AI technology and whether Beijing has closed the gap with the US in the sphere.
The ensuing market reaction was particularly stark for Nvidia, with shares of the company plunging Monday in one of the biggest selloffs in history. Investors are concerned that DeepSeek’s method for developing effective AI software doesn’t require as much of the expensive gear that Nvidia sells.
Nvidia shares declined 3.7% to $120.07 at the close Friday, bringing the stock’s cumulative slide to 16% this week.
Trump administration officials have begun probing whether DeepSeek purchased banned Nvidia chips through intermediaries in Singapore, circumventing US restrictions on the sales of processors used for AI tasks, according to people familiar with the matter.
Huang’s meeting with Trump has been in the works for several weeks, according to a person familiar with the matter. The goal was to discuss AI policy, and it wasn’t prompted by the DeepSeek breakthrough, said the person, who described the plans on condition of anonymity.
