Donald Trump stated that China has not yet approved Nvidia H200 chip purchases, noting Beijing’s preference to develop domestic alternatives.

President Donald Trump stated on Friday that China has not yet approved purchases of Nvidia Corp.’s (NVDA) H200 AI chips because Beijing chose not to proceed. According to a Bloomberg report, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that the chips were discussed during his two-day state visit to China. “They haven’t approved H200 purchases yet, because they chose not to, they want to develop their own. But it did come up, and I think something could happen on that,” he said. Following the remarks, Nvidia shares fell nearly 2% in Friday’s pre-market trading, with NVDA ranking among the top trending tickers on Stocktwits at the time of publication.

During the same visit, Trump noted that he discussed establishing guardrails for artificial intelligence technology with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “We talked about possibly working together for guardrails. Standard guardrails that we talk about all the time,” he added. China’s hesitation to approve Nvidia H200 chip purchases follows recent reports that the United States had permitted the semiconductor company to sell the hardware to Chinese firms. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer confirmed to CNBC that there were no discussions between Washington and Beijing regarding chip export controls. “As to whether the Chinese are going to buy [U.S. chips] or not, they’re making their own determinations. They’re very committed to domestic production, they often see U.S. high tech as a threat to them. If we’re ahead of the game on AI chips…sometimes they feel that can stop their own growth,” Greer said.

Trump also addressed questions raised by Xi regarding whether the United States would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack. “That question was asked to me today by President Xi. I said I don’t talk about that,” Trump told CNBC reporters. He emphasized that he alone determines how the U.S. would respond in such a scenario. The comments followed Trump’s invitation earlier in the week for Xi to visit the White House in September. Meanwhile, Xi proposed that both nations work to avoid the so-called “Thucydides Trap,” describing the bilateral relationship as the most important in the world. He cautioned that U.S.-China ties could be pushed into a dangerous position if the Taiwan issue is not managed carefully.

In broader market context, NVDA stock has risen 26% year-to-date and 74% over the past 12 months. Over the same trailing twelve-month period, the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) is up 27%, while the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (QQQ) has gained 39%. The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF (VTI) and the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) have each increased by 26% during this timeframe.