Shortly after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang left China following a delegation led by US President Donald Trump, Beijing officials swiftly announced a meeting with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) CEO Lisa Su, drawing market attention to a possible shift in the atmosphere surrounding US-China AI chip cooperation.
According to a report by Chinese state media Xinhua News Agency on May 18, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng met with Su at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing that afternoon. Chinese state media gave the meeting prominent coverage, while major Western outlets largely overlooked it despite its political and industrial significance.
It is noteworthy that a Chinese vice premier met individually with a US technology executive — something that has been uncommon in recent years. Such exchanges have more typically taken the form of meetings with the American Chamber of Commerce or business delegations. That the meeting took place at the Great Hall of the People, the same venue used for recent Chinese receptions of other US business leaders, further underscored the importance Beijing attached to the occasion.
Su has visited China repeatedly in recent years, meeting with Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao, Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Lecheng, and China's ambassador to the US Xie Feng. The engagements reflect AMD's efforts to maintain ties with the Chinese market.
According to People's Daily Online, He said during the meeting that the US and Chinese leaders had reached multiple points of consensus at their recent Beijing summit, and that the two countries' economic and trade teams had achieved broadly balanced and positive results — developments he said could bring greater stability to the global economy. He also stressed that China welcomed multinational companies, including AMD, to continue seizing opportunities in the Chinese market and deepening mutually beneficial cooperation.
Su responded that she held a positive view of the results of the US-China leaders' meeting. She said that AMD was willing to continue expanding its business in China and increase investment and cooperation in the Chinese market.
Beijing sends a signal
The market broadly interpreted Beijing's decision to proactively publicize the meeting as a sign of China's continued flexibility on AI chip imports and cooperation with foreign firms. This was especially notable given the US's ongoing tightening of export controls on advanced AI chips, even as Beijing continues to signal stability for foreign investment and technological cooperation.
According to DIGITIMES reports, AMD has continued supplying the Chinese market and has begun selling certain older AI chips that comply with export control rules to Chinese customers. Among them, the MI308 generated approximately US$390 million in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2025, mainly from orders placed earlier by Chinese customers that were subsequently shipped.
However, AMD also acknowledged that the Chinese market remained heavily affected by export controls and shipment schedules, and has therefore not included its China business in its long-term growth outlook. Su had previously said that the Chinese market was highly volatile and that AMD would continue investments while remaining cautious.
Demand holds, but uncertainty lingers
Market attention remains focused on AI chip products such as the MI308 that comply with US export regulations. Demand from Chinese cloud and AI customers for such products persists, leaving AMD as one of the few US companies still maintaining AI chip exports to China as the technological rivalry between the two nations intensifies.
Article translated by Lily Hess and edited by Jerry Chen
