Why Nvidia is the tech winner of the US-China tariff truce

Tue, May 13, 2025, 2:29 PM 4 min read

If you closed your eyes for a small implicit a month, you mightiness person missed the carnivore market.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) has astir wiped retired each of its losses truthful acold this twelvemonth arsenic markets rebound connected a 90-day tariff pause betwixt the US and China that dropped duties by 115 percent points.

While tech stocks are rallying crossed the board, Wedbush expert and tech banal watcher Dan Ives sees 1 wide victor successful the easing of commercialized tensions.

“It would person to beryllium Nvidia,” Ives told Yahoo Finance successful an interrogation conscionable earlier the chipmaker's marketplace capitalization broke supra $3 trillion for the archetypal clip since February. According to Ives, the broader tariff alleviation rally successful tech, coupled with an artificial quality concern rhythm that remains intact, creates a "dream scenario" for the AI spot leader.

Nvidia banal (NVDA) surged implicit 5% connected Monday pursuing the US-China woody and by arsenic overmuch connected Tuesday, though shares are inactive down 3% twelvemonth to date.

“I deliberation [the stock] makes ... caller all-time highs due to the fact that there's lone 1 spot successful the satellite fueling the AI revolution, and that's led by [the] godfather of AI, Jensen, and Nvidia,” Ives said.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is presently successful Saudi Arabia alongside dozens of tech executives for a dealmaking bonanza led by President Trump arsenic portion of his archetypal large overseas travel successful his 2nd term.

The assistance successful Nvidia banal tin beryllium partially explained by the US granting Saudi Arabia much entree to precocious AI chips, buoying the Gulf nation’s quality to acquisition high-powered semiconductors. On Tuesday, Nvidia announced it volition vessel 18,000 chips to an AI startup owned by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealthiness fund.

One imaginable interest with selling cutting-edge chips to Saudi Arabia is that those chips could past beryllium smuggled to China, bypassing US export controls. The Trump medication tightened immoderate restrictions targeted astatine China, but it's besides looking to overhaul regulations connected AI spot curbs.

Brian McCarthy, main strategist astatine MacroLens, argued that curbs connected spot exports to China are pugnacious to enforce.

“It's conscionable very, precise hard to enactment a nett astir this stuff,” said McCarthy, adding, "The Chinese are precise diligent. They person a precise bully web of ways to determination products underground … for each kinds of products.”

National information issues notwithstanding, if China tin usage indirect spot purchases to enactment astir export controls, that could beryllium a boon for Nvidia shareholders.

“It shows it's not conscionable astir China,” Ives said. “This conscionable shows what I judge is going to beryllium happening implicit the coming years — the trillions being spent connected AI.”