Trump Invites Nvidia CEO Huang to Beijing in Effort to Open China AI Market

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang flew to Beijing aboard Air Force One after a last‑minute invitation from U.S. President Donald Trump, joining a high‑stakes mission the White House cast as an effort to “open up” China to American business and, in particular, U.S. technology exports cnbc +1. The trip came just months after Washington eased restrictions on sales of Nvidia’s advanced H200 artificial‑intelligence chips to Chinese firms under a deal that lets the U.S. government take a cut of revenue theguardian.

Why Huang’s Last‑Minute Seat Matters for the Chip and AI Race

Huang was absent from an initial list of more than a dozen CEOs slated to travel with Trump, a surprise given Nvidia’s status as the world’s most valuable company and a flashpoint in U.S.–China tech policy nytimes +1. After media coverage highlighted the omission, Trump phoned Huang on May 12; the CEO boarded Air Force One during a refuelling stop in Alaska and continued on to Beijing with the delegation that includes Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook and BlackRock’s Larry Fink reuters +2.

Nvidia has been lobbying in Washington and Beijing to preserve a China market that once generated roughly a third of its revenue, but was hit by Biden‑era export controls on cutting‑edge AI chips aa. In December 2025, Trump announced that Nvidia’s H200 accelerators could again be sold to “approved” Chinese customers if the U.S. collected about 25% of the revenue, a policy later implemented through revised Commerce Department licensing rules theguardian +1. Chinese tech giants ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent have since been cleared to import more than 400,000 H200 chips in an initial batch, against total Chinese orders exceeding 2 million units, underscoring the commercial stakes around Huang’s presence at the summit bbc.

A Test Case for Trump’s ‘Open Up China’ Strategy

Trump framed the Beijing visit as a bid to persuade President Xi Jinping to “open up” China to U.S. firms, saying he would make that plea his “very first request” cnbc. Huang’s inclusion highlights how central AI hardware has become to broader trade talks that also span tariffs, the Iran war and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan cnbc. For U.S. business, the delegation signals a push to stabilize—or even expand—access to the Chinese market for aircraft, agriculture and especially semiconductors. For national‑security hawks in both parties, however, the H200 deal is a case study in how export relief could accelerate China’s AI and military capabilities, even with U.S. revenue sharing and licensing limits attached barrons.

Beijing has moved cautiously. After initially blocking or delaying H200 shipments and prompting some suppliers to pause production, regulators in January approved the first large tranche of imports but tied them to conditions and quotas that align with China’s push to develop domestic chipmakers bbc +1. Analysts said Huang’s presence raised hopes for smoother implementation of those approvals rather than a sweeping new accord, with one former U.S. commerce secretary arguing that “we are far away from a deal on export controls” even if dialogue itself was a positive step cnbc. Nvidia shares rose toward record highs as investors treated the trip as a symbolic plus in a market still driven primarily by AI demand outside China bloomberg +1.

The Bigger Picture

The Beijing mission positioned Nvidia’s CEO at the center of a test of whether the world’s two largest economies can carve out a managed, transactional space for AI hardware trade amid strategic rivalry. Any concrete movement on H200 exports—or future generations of chips—will signal how much room remains between full‑blown tech decoupling and tightly controlled “co‑opetition,” with implications not only for Nvidia’s earnings but for the pace of China’s AI development and the leverage Washington retains in future negotiations.

cnbc Reuters, May 13, 2026
reuters CNBC, May 13, 2026
theguardian Reuters/CNBC, Dec 8–9, 2025
nytimes New York Times, May 12, 2026
politico Bloomberg, May 11–13, 2026
bloomberg BBC/Forbes/Yahoo Finance, May 13, 2026
aa NYT/CFR, 2025–26
barrons Commerce/BIS rule summaries; Politico, Jan 2026
bbc Reuters, Jan 28, 2026
forbes The Guardian/Reuters, Jan 17, 2026
bloomberg Cryptobriefing, Bitget, May 13, 2026