US Approves Chinese Chip Purchases From NVIDIA; Export Restrictions Lifted

A now-disputed claim circulated on social media Friday morning that US export restrictions on Nvidia chips to China had been 'lifted' entirely, causing a brief burst of buying in NVDA and semiconductor peers. NVDA gained intraday on the headline, but no official Treasury Department statement or White House press release confirmed a wholesale reversal of the Entity List restrictions that have been in place since 2023. The Trump-Xi summit in Beijing (concluding May 15) did produce discussion of normalized trade, but neither the US Trade Representative nor administration officials mentioned a blanket removal of chip export controls.

What we do know: Trump and Xi discussed agricultural purchases and rare earth supplies, but semiconductor sales remain within sensitive export-control frameworks. NVIDIA previously lost roughly 25pct of its China revenue to restrictions, and any genuine softening would be material. However, the specific claim about blanket restriction removal appears to be rumor rather than policy announcement. This highlights how keen the market is for China reopening, multiple sources mentioned that China's demand for AI chips remains insatiable, and any credible signal of normalized supply would trigger parabolic rallies in memory and GPU stocks.

Meanwhile, NVIDIA's CEO was spotted eating noodles on a Beijing street during the summit, a photo moment that amplified speculation. AMD and other chipmakers also surged intraday on China-optimism rumors, though like NVDA, the moves were not anchored to formal policy changes. The China trade narrative remains the single largest lever for semiconductor valuations in 2026; traders are primed for any hint of normalization, but currently, restrictions remain in force pending formal review.

Risk: if the claim turns out to be entirely baseless or a social-media artifact, the unwind could be sharp. The semiconductor complex is already pricing in significant China upside; a reversal of that bet would be a violent deleveraging event for leveraged longs.