The United States’ decision to ease export restrictions on certain advanced chips – part of a broader package of trade agreements with China – is seen by experts as an early sign that high-level negotiations have steered bilateral relations in the right direction.

Washington’s move to resume license application reviews for Nvidia’s H20 AI and Advanced Micro Devices’s MI308 AI chips comes ahead of talks between senior officials from both nations in the coming weeks, despite a protracted strategic stand-off over tech and export controls.

Zhuang Bo, global macro strategist at Loomis Sayles Investment Asia, said the development was a clear win for China – effectively resetting the clock to March, before rare earths became a geopolitical chokepoint.

“It signals that Beijing is inching closer to the G2-style negotiations it has long sought, framed in official rhetoric as a call for ‘mutual respect and equality.’”

While the reality on the ground has not changed much, the situation has not deteriorated, he added. “Whether there will be a Xi-Trump summit later this year will be crucial. If that happens, a partial agreement is still possible.”

On Tuesday, AMD said the US Department of Commerce was reviewing its licence applications to export MI308 chips to China, and that sales would resume once approved.