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Gavekal Technologies: Chips
Corporate America’s Beijing Shopping List
Laila Khawaja
14 May 2026
Seventeen CEOs are in Donald Trump’s entourage for his summit meeting in Beijing this week. The heavyweight corporate presence—which includes Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Tim Cook, Larry Fink and Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg—underscores that the White House hopes to score high-profile commercial commitments that Trump can position as wins for US business. The CEOs arrive with a long list of asks, from greater market access, business licenses in restricted areas, more certainty on supplies of key inputs like rare earths and magnets, and removal or reduction of regulatory penalties. Huang’s last-minute addition to the trip indicates that export controls are not part of Washington’s agenda. If the talks go well, one likely outcome is China would allow limited imports of Nvidia’s H200 chips to show its attitude of market openness while meeting the country’s surging demand for AI compute.
Gavekal Technologies: Chips
Arming Up For The Trump-Xi Summit
Laila Khawaja
7 May 2026
The US-China relationship is no longer defined exclusively by trade restrictions and technology chokepoints, but increasingly by each side’s ability and willingness to deploy legal and regulatory measures and countermeasures. As Beijing establishes and demonstrates its leverage ahead of the summit between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, scheduled for next week, the ball is now in Washington’s court. The US can choose to test China's leverage or negotiate within it.
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A Western Hemisphere Strategy For Rare Earths
Rare earths are sure to be on the agenda at the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing in mid-May. China’s chokehold over these specialty minerals continues to be its biggest source of leverage over the US. The US strategy is to build a China-free supply chain for rare earths and magnets. Unlike many Trump administration initiatives, the rare-earths industrial policy is disciplined and focused, and stands a good chance of success.
China Blocks Meta-Manus Deal
China blocks Meta-Manus deal; US limits chip-tool sales to Hua Hong; domestic chips at Beijing Auto Show.
On The Ground At China’s Tech Conferences (Part II)
This report is the second part of the multi-part series summarizing the key findings from the many conversations Gavekal Technologies had with on-the-ground sources in China: Waiting for Nvidia chips; companies find new workarounds; China’s rising SSD star.
China’s Supply-Chain Security Strategy
China would like the US to roll back its restrictions on semiconductor exports and the US would like China to loosen up rare-earth export licenses, but neither side is likely to oblige. Although its rare-earths card is solid for now, China is taking out some extra insurance with new regulations. In today’s China Tech Brief we assess their impact.
China Strengthens Its Retaliation Toolkit
China’s new supply chain security regulation; China has a legal response to extraterritorial actions; China turns to Russia for helium.
Can The World’s Biggest Grid Get Smarter?
In the first issue of our new biweekly New Energy Insight, Damien Ma takes a close look at where the world’s biggest electricity system is headed. China’s grid is easily the best and most technically advanced in the world, but it is still plagued with problems: most important, that vast new quantities of wind and solar generation are not reliably connected.