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Aug 10 (Reuters) - China wants the United States to ease export controls on chips critical for artificial intelligence as part of a trade deal before a possible summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

Chinese officials have told experts in Washington that Beijing wants the Trump administration to relax export restrictions on high-bandwidth memory chips, the newspaper reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.

The White House, State Department and China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

HBM chips, which help perform data-intensive AI tasks quickly, are closely watched by investors due to their use alongside AI graphic processors, particularly Nvidia's NVDA.O.

The FT said China is concerned because the U.S. HBM controls hamper the ability of Chinese companies such as Huawei to develop their own AI chips.

Successive U.S. administrations have curbed exports of advanced chips to China, looking to stymie Beijing's AI and defence development.

While this has impacted U.S. firms' ability to fully address booming demand from China, one of the world's largest semiconductor markets, it still remains an important revenue driver for American chipmakers.

(Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by William Mallard)

((Chandni.shah@thomsonreuters.com;))