Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is joining President Donald Trump on his China visit. According to reports, President Trump added Nvidia’s Jensen Huang to the list of CEOs accompanying him to China at the 11th hour on Tuesday, May 12. Trump is scheduled to arrive in Beijing late on Wednesday local time for two days of meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. It will be the first visit by a sitting US president in nearly a decade.“Jensen is attending the summit at the invitation of President Trump to support America and the administration’s goals,” an Nvidia spokesperson said in a statement. Reports suggest that the President “called Jensen this morning after seeing reports that he wasn’t joining the trip. He reportedly told him he wanted him to come. The Nvidia CEO flew to Alaska to join Trump mid-journey to China.
Why Nvidia CEO was ‘avoiding’ China trip
Analysts are said to see the Nvidia CEO’s presence in the list of CEOs travelling with Trump as a political liability. And it seems Huang agrees. According to a report in Semafor, Huang, who’s still in Trump’s inner circle, had previously discussed with the president how the presence in Beijing of the world’s largest chipmaker could invite unwanted scrutiny of the trip. Sitting out of the visit would have prevented the “awkward conversations” that surround the highly contested sale of Nvidia chips to China.This had made White House instead decide to invite executives from Nvidia competitors Micron and Qualcomm for the trip. Coherent and Illumina.China has been unhappy with Trump’s decision to not allow Nvidia to sell its most advanced AI chips to China. America has also been cracking down on Chinese and US companies smuggling banned Nvidia chips to China.
What makes Nvidia a ‘political liability’ in Trump’s China trip
On its part, Nvidia has been stuck in the middle of a high-stakes battle for AI supremacy between China and the US. As the two companies fight to retain their competitive edge, they see Nvidia chips as a crucial component in this. Huang on his part has always maintained that patterning with China is better for America than shutting them down. In April this year, Huang said that Nvidia used to have around 90% market share in China, and today it’s at zero. “We were effectively foreclosed from competing in China’s data center computing/compute market, and our effective foreclosure from the China market helped our competitors build larger developer and customer ecosystems to challenge us worldwide,” the company said in a recent filing. “Unless we are able to return with a product that meets the approval of both the USG and the Chinese government, our lost opportunity and the benefit to our competitors will have a material and adverse impact on our business, operating results, and financial condition.”The Nvidia CEO faces opposition in China not only from Trump, but also many in the Republican party who have made increasingly clear that they think a freer flow of tech between the US and China carries more risk than reward. A House committee recently advanced legislation that would give lawmakers 30 days to review and block the sale of key chips to countries including China and Iran.
Trump slams report claiming Nvidia CEO was not invited
In a post on Truth Social, President Trump criticised reports claiming that Nvidia CEO was not invited to join him on his China visit. “CNBC incorrectly reported that the Great Jensen Huang, of Nvidia, was not invited to the incredible gathering of the World’s Greatest Businessmen/women proudly going to China. In actuality, Jensen is currently on Air Force One and, unless I ask him to leave, which is highly unlikely, CNBC’s reporting is incorrect or, as they say in politics, FAKE NEWS! It is an Honor to have Jensen, Elon, Tim Apple, Larry Fink, Stephen Schwarzmann, Kelly Ortberg (Boeing), Brian Sikes (Cargill), Jane Fraser (Citi), Larry Culp (GE Aerospace), David Solomon (Goldman Sachs), Sanjay Mehrotra (Micron), Cristiano Amon (Qualcomm), and many others journeying to the Great Country of China where I will be asking President Xi, a Leader of extraordinary distinction, to “open up” China so that these brilliant people can work their magic, and help bring the People’s Republic to an even higher level! In fact, I promise, that when we are together, which will be in a matter of hours, I will make that my very first request. I have never seen or heard of any idea that would be more beneficial to our incredible Countries!” wrote Trump.