Trump Adds Nvidia's Huang to China Delegation Amid Chip Talks

Jensen Huang joined President Donald Trump's delegation for a high-stakes summit in Beijing after a dramatic reversal from his initial exclusion. On May 12, reports indicated the Nvidia Corporation CEO was not invited to the trip, which prioritized agriculture and aviation deals. However, after seeing media coverage of the omission, Trump personally called Huang, who then flew to Alaska to board Air Force One.

The three-day summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping covers trade, tariffs, artificial intelligence, the Iran conflict, Taiwan, and rare earths. Trump stated his primary request is for Xi to open China to U.S. businesses. Huang's late addition signals that Nvidia Corporation's H200 AI chip exports will be a central negotiation point. The chips received conditional U.S. approval, but Chinese regulators have blocked shipments at the border and pushed domestic alternatives from Huawei.

Nvidia Corporation faces a total loss of revenue in China due to tightening U.S. export restrictions and a 2025 antitrust violation ruling by Chinese regulators. While the company's market capitalization reached a record $5.4 trillion on May 13, it underperformed semiconductor peers. A short-seller report from Culper Research alleged that over 20% of the company's FY2026 compute revenue still flows through China via illegal GPU diversion, contradicting Huang's claim that the company is completely out of the country.

Speaking to state broadcaster CCTV, Huang expressed hope that Trump and Xi would leverage their relationship to enhance bilateral ties and allow H200 chip deliveries to Chinese clients.