US-China AI Talks Unsettled Ahead of Xi's Sept. 24 Washington Visit

Washington and Beijing have yet to settle the venue, participants or scope of a planned AI dialogue ahead of Xi Jinping's Sept. 24 meeting with President Donald Trump, leaving the summit's agenda unresolved.

Two people familiar with the discussions said Washington has not decided which part of the US government should take the lead, while the two sides have not agreed on whether technical experts and private-sector representatives should take part.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has led talks on the broader US-China economic relationship, but AI policy cuts across the White House, intelligence agencies, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the departments of state, commerce and defense, one person said. A substantive dialogue would also require experts from AI laboratories rather than senior diplomats alone. It remains unclear whether OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind and Nvidia on the US side, or DeepSeek, Alibaba and Baidu on the Chinese side, will formally attend.

The unresolved logistics come as the Trump administration says it is losing $19 billion to $26 billion a year in revenue as countries dodge tariffs, a backdrop that raises the stakes for the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders in years. If the AI track stalls, export-control tensions could escalate; if it advances, it could open market access for AI hardware and software companies on both sides.

A Dialogue Split Across Five Agencies

The question of who leads is not procedural. AI policy spans at least five US agencies, and a formal dialogue would need buy-in from each. Bessent's remit covers the economic relationship, but the technology track touches the intelligence community and the Pentagon, whose export-control mandates have shaped the dispute. Nvidia, whose advanced processors sit at the center of the fight, has seen its China business swing with each round of restrictions, while Chinese developers such as Alibaba and Baidu have built around the hardware they can still buy.

The split mirrors the broader fragmentation of US-China policy, where trade, technology and security interests pull in different directions. Bessent has pressed for a more transactional approach to the economic relationship, while the Commerce and Defense departments have driven the export-control agenda. A formal AI dialogue would be the first test of whether those competing priorities can be reconciled at the summit level.

What a Deal Would Mean for AI Stocks

For investors, the outcome carries direct implications. A successful dialogue could ease the export-control regime that has squeezed Nvidia's China sales and pressured Chinese developers to adapt. Failure would likely accelerate the divergence between US and Chinese AI supply chains, deepening the $19 billion-to-$26 billion annual tariff-revenue gap the White House has flagged. With the summit weeks away, the unresolved logistics leave both sides' AI industries in limbo, and the national debt at $40 trillion adds fiscal pressure to any trade concession.

The September meeting will also test whether the two governments can move beyond the tariff standoff that has defined the relationship. If the AI track produces a framework, it could set a template for cooperation in other contested technologies, from semiconductors to quantum computing. If it collapses, the two sides are likely to deepen the restrictions that have already reshaped global supply chains.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.