Nvidia $NVDA CEO Jensen Huang is joining President Donald Trump's delegation to China after Trump called him on Tuesday following media coverage that the chip executive had not been included in the trip.
After Huang's last-minute invite, the Nvidia chief made his way to Alaska, where he boarded Air Force One, according to CNBC. Trump is traveling to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping Thursday and Friday, accompanied by more than a dozen U.S. executives.
"Jensen is attending the summit at the invitation of President Trump to support America and the administration's goals," an Nvidia spokesperson told CNBC. Reuters reported that a White House spokesman described the development as a scheduling shift that ultimately allowed Huang to participate.
Trump confirmed Huang's presence on Air Force One in a social media post, pushing back on reports that the Nvidia executive had not been invited. He said opening China for 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," Trump wrote.
When the White House published its roster of 16 executives on Monday — among them Apple $AAPL's Tim Cook, BlackRock $BLK's Larry Fink, and Tesla $TSLA's Elon Musk — Huang's name was conspicuously absent, The New York Times reported.
The last-minute addition comes as Nvidia has spent months trying to break a prolonged standoff over its H200 AI chips in China. Even though the Trump administration gave the green light for H200 sales in late 2025, Reuters reported that no chips have actually been delivered to buyers in China. Last month, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick pointed to obstacles on the Chinese side, saying local companies had struggled to secure approval from Beijing to move forward with buying the chips.
China once accounted for 13% of Nvidia's total revenue. Nvidia disclosed in February that even the chip configurations Washington had sanctioned for export remained blocked at China's border.