Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will join US President Donald Trump on his trip to China this week, the company has confirmed.
“Jensen is attending the summit at the invitation of President Trump to support America and the administration’s goals,” an Nvidia representative told the South China Morning Post in an email.
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A White House official said that during a refuelling stop in Anchorage, Alaska en route to Beijing, where Trump did not disembark, Huang boarded Air Force One. The official also confirmed that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was travelling on the presidential plane.
Seventeen American CEOs were on a list of invited business delegates released by the White House on Monday – a smaller group than Trump’s previous China trip in 2017, when 27 high-profile executives joined.
Huang was not included on Monday’s list, which fuelled speculation Washington had limited appetite for rolling back some of its tech export controls. In an interview last week, he said he would have joined the trip “if invited”.
Laila Khawaja, research director at Gavekal Technologies, said Huang’s last-minute inclusion was more reflective of the chip giant CEO’s “lobbying efforts” than a shift in Washington’s agenda for the summit.
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