Relations between the U.S. and China have become so strained that the chance of a Chinese firm doing a deal in the U.S. are virtually nil, according to the top tech banker at JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N).

``If you’re a Chinese company, there’s no way in hell you’re buying anything in the U.S., not even the trash can, for the foreseeable future,'' Madhu Namburi, head of technology investment banking at the New York-based bank, said.

Private equity funds meanwhile, are increasingly interested in buying tech startups backed by venture capital, Namburi said at the Collision technology conference in Toronto on Wednesday. More than 25,700 attendees from 125 countries have converged in the city for the tech summit.

"They are willing to pay eight, nine times revenues multiples,'' he said.``Once these companies hit a certain scale and size, they actually become a good platform for them."

Another big change in trend is that around 26 per cent of tech companies are being bought by non-tech players, he said. All the big companies are becoming tech-centric.

"FOMO is at an all time high," Mike Hollinger, a partner at law firm Dentons Canada LLP, added in the same panel, referring to fear of missing out. "Corporates are more concerned than ever before about what their competition might be doing ahead of an uncertain future."

VC companies however, aren't in any rush to divest, Namburi said.