AMD chief Lisa Su visits Lenovo in Beijing as US hints at easing chip curbs

Lisa Su, chair and chief executive of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), began a visit to China on Tuesday, meeting Chinese computer giant Lenovo in Beijing just days after US President Donald Trump said Washington would ease restrictions on certain chip shipments to China.\nSu and other AMD executives visited Lenovo’s headquarters, where photos circulating on Chinese social media showed multiple digital screens displaying “Welcome AMD”.\nOn RedNote, Lenovo’s official account replied to one post with a lighthearted “You’re pretty fast”, effectively acknowledging the meeting.\nSu, travelling with a delegation of senior AMD executives, was accompanied by Lenovo managers as the group toured the company’s latest products and technology, including its humanoid robotics work, according to Chinese financial outlet Yicai.\n\nOne image shared by news portal Sina showed Su standing with a humanoid robot and Liu Jun, president of Lenovo China.\nAMD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Su’s itinerary.\nThe trip is the latest in a series of China visits by Su. In March, she also started a China tour at Lenovo, as the company announced a server for large-model training powered by AMD chips.\nDuring that trip, she highlighted AMD’s compatibility with DeepSeek’s AI models and Alibaba Group Holding’s Qwen series. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.\nSu’s latest stop comes as chipmakers navigate intensifying US-China technology competition and shifting regulatory headwinds.\nChina, including Hong Kong, generated US$6.2 billion in AMD revenue in 2024, representing about 24 per cent of the company’s total, according to figures cited in media reports, making it the biggest market outside the US.\nAlthough several advanced AMD chips have been banned by the US, the situation may now be changing.\nTrump said last week that the US would allow Nvidia to ship its H200 graphics processing units to approved customers in China, under an arrangement that would require 25 per cent to be paid to Washington. He added that the same approach would apply to AMD and Intel among others.\nEven so, China remains a tougher market than it once was for US chipmakers. In November, Reuters reported that Beijing issued guidance barring the use of foreign AI chips – including those from AMD, Nvidia and Intel – in data centres funded even partly by the state.\n