Are Tech Leaders Pushing a U.S.-China AI Truce?

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Luke Vargas (0:33)

As President Trump and American tech leaders prepared a touchdown in Beijing, we'll consider if an AI breakthrough between the US and China could be in the cards. Plus, US household debt closes in on $19 trillion, and continued disruption to the Strait of Hormuz sends trade over land.

Ed Ballard (0:52)

What we're really talking about is really long lines of trucks barreling across the desert. Before the war, there are about 100 trucks a day. Now there are 7,000.

Luke Vargas (1:01)

It's Wednesday, May 13th. I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today.

President Trump is on his way to Beijing for this week's summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. And with him is an entourage of American business leaders, as our China Bureau Chief Jonathan Cheng explains.

Jonathan Cheng (1:28)

You have Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Elon Musk, three of the biggest names in tech. And they're also a host of CEOs from the financial sector as well. And it does reflect an interest still in pockets of corporate America to continue to engage with China, despite all of the geopolitical risks and tensions between the two countries, despite the fact that China has seen all of these domestic rivals spring up in a lot of these industries. A lot of the easy money is now, in theory, gone in China, but obviously these CEOs see a lot of potential there still.

Luke Vargas (2:06)

And Jon told us that tech-heavy delegation could signal a potential opening on AI, in spite of concerns from hawks in Washington about giving China access to advanced US tech.

Jonathan Cheng (2:17)

The fact that Jensen Huang is going to be there suggests that perhaps this is going to be a positive sign for China and its ability to get its hands on NVIDIA's chips. Jensen Huang has made the argument that if Chinese entities are not able to get their hands on the top NVIDIA chips, then they're going to develop their own indigenous capabilities, and that will be detrimental to US interests in the long run. Elon Musk is interesting because he's been such a central player in the rise of China's own industries in many ways, in particular the EV industry, and he has very deep ties with the Chinese leadership as well. So insofar as he can serve as a bridge between the two sides, it does signal perhaps that there's going to be just a little bit more of a meeting of minds here between the US and Chinese delegations.

Luke Vargas (3:05)

Iran is dramatically expanding its definition of the Strait of Hormuz, saying that it won't tolerate any encroachment in hundreds of miles of water well outside of its narrow maritime choke point with Oman. That announcement by its Revolutionary Guard naval force is the latest signal of Iran's intent to widen its grip over the waterway.

Despite an ongoing US blockade of Iran's ports and American efforts to guide ships through the Strait, few vessels are making the journey. Instead, our Ed Ballard reports that new overland trade routes are emerging to get goods into and out of the Gulf.

Ed Ballard (3:39)

What we're really talking about is really long lines of trucks barreling across the desert.

The UAE has ports on both sides of the Strait of Hormuz, and the ones on the outside, we write about Khorfakan in our story, has gone from being relatively sleepy and quiet to an extremely important conduit for goods coming in and out. So container traffic at that port has exploded from 2,000 to 50,000 a week, and that's been enabled by these huge lines of trucks. Before the war, there were about 100 trucks a day. Now, there are 7,000.

Luke Vargas (4:10)

Meanwhile, a much longer route is seeing Saudi fertilizer exports that were once shipped out of the Gulf, instead trucked all the way to the Red Sea, a less efficient but strategically vital route that Ed said could stick around.

Ed Ballard (4:22)

It's never going to be as cheap as moving stuff by sea, and you won't be able to compensate for all the volumes. And of course, there are lots of energy products that can't be moved overland. But I think it's quite likely these countries will move to shore up these arrangements, maybe strengthen them with new rail links, new infrastructure. So they have this option in future.