Jensen Huang Joins Trump's China Delegation After President's Personal Call

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has joined President Donald Trump's diplomatic trip to China this week, boarding Air Force One in Alaska after Trump personally called him to extend an invitation, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Huang had not been included in the original delegation, and it was media coverage of his absence that prompted Trump to reach out directly, the source said. Huang then flew to Alaska to board the presidential aircraft and join the group headed to Beijing.

Trump is bringing more than a dozen American executives to China, where he is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday and Friday.

"Jensen is attending the summit at the invitation of President Trump to support America and the administration's goals," a Nvidia spokesperson said in a statement.

In a social media post, Trump confirmed Huang was on board Air Force One and disputed reports that the Nvidia chief had not been invited. Trump also said that opening China to U.S. businesses would be his "first request" to Xi.

"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!" Trump wrote, referring to the broader U.S. business delegation.

Huang's presence on the trip comes against a backdrop of sustained U.S. export controls on Nvidia's most advanced chips, which are widely used to train AI models. Those restrictions have been tightening for four years, and the company disclosed in February that U.S.-government-approved chip variants had still not been cleared for sale in China.

Beijing, in turn, has been working to develop domestic alternatives, including AI models such as DeepSeek that are designed to operate without Nvidia hardware. An article published this month in the ruling Chinese Communist Party's official journal acknowledged that local companies had been forced to slow development because of U.S. chip restrictions, while noting Nvidia's dominance in the global market for graphics processing units.

Carlos Gutierrez, former U.S. secretary of commerce, offered a measured read on Huang's participation. "I still believe that we are far away from a deal on export controls... it's positive that he's there and he's part of the President's delegation, and that that that's important for him and it's important for the President," Gutierrez told "Squawk Box Asia."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the circumstances of Huang's late addition to the delegation.

Whether Huang's presence translates into any concrete movement on chip-export policy remains an open question, with the Trump-Xi meetings scheduled to begin Thursday.