According to a source, Trump called Huang after seeing media reporting the Nvidia leader's absence from the Trump-Xi summit.
US President Donald Trump is taking a dozen technology leaders to China, including Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang — a last-minute addition who boarded Air Force One, according to media reports
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Huang was not on the list of CEOs invited to attend the summit between Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping that was circulated on Monday.
An Nvidia spokesperson told Euronews Next: "Jensen is attending the summit at the invitation of President Trump to support America and the administration's goals.”
In a social media post, Trump said Huang was on board Air Force One and denied that the Nvidia boss was now invited, as reported by some media outlets.
But Trump asked Huang at the last minute to join the trip, Reuters reported, citing a source familiar with the matter. Meanwhile, CNBC reported that after seeing the media coverage of Huang’s absence from the delegation, Trump called the Nvidia executive, according to a source.
"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 said in his post on Truth Social.
The push comes as Huang has repeatedly lobbied the US administration to loosen export controls to sell its powerful H200 artificial intelligence semiconductors there.
Nvidia said in February that US-government-approved versions of the chips had not yet been allowed into China.
However, China is seeking to build its own AI chips. Huawei, Alibaba, and ByteDance have started their own chip design businesses.
As such, China’s AI advances have closed the gap with the US, according to this year’s annual AI report by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.
According to the report, the US has the edge over capital, infrastructure and AI chips. But China wins in patents, publications, and physical AI (otherwise known as robotics).
However, experts have told Euronews Next that a breakthrough deal on semiconductors looks unlikely.
Other tech leaders invited to the summit that takes place Thursday and Friday include Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon.
