Why Jensen Huang of NVIDIA Won't Go to China: "A Strong Signal from the U.S."

NVIDIA Excluded from Delegation of 16 CEOs Visiting China

There has been significant attention on the exclusion of Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, from U.S. President Donald Trump's delegation to China. Some interpret this as a signal that artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor chips are not on the agenda for trade negotiations at this summit, reflecting the intentions of the U.S.

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, is speaking at the GTC conference held in San Jose, California on March 16. Photo by AFP Yonhap News

According to Bloomberg News on the 12th (local time), citing White House officials, more than ten CEOs were included in the economic delegation, but CEO Huang was not invited. In contrast, 16 others—including the CEOs of Tesla, Apple, Boeing, Micron Technology, Qualcomm, and Meta—were included in the final list.

CEO Jensen Huang had previously expressed his willingness to join President Trump’s visit to China on the 7th. He told U.S. business media outlet CNBC, "It would be a privilege if I were invited," and added, "It would be a great honor to represent the U.S. by traveling to China with President Trump." It is also known that CEO Huang met with President Trump last month when King Charles III of the United Kingdom visited Washington. This suggests that the decision was not based on personal preference.

The situation was further complicated by recent remarks from U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. Last month, he stated in Congress that while some sales permits for NVIDIA's 'H200' chips had been issued, actual exports had not occurred because the Chinese government had not allowed its domestic tech companies to purchase them.

U.S. controls on technology exports to China have long been a central issue in U.S.-China trade negotiations. The U.S. has restricted Chinese access to American technology, which sparked significant conflict between the two countries last year. In response, China imposed export sanctions on rare earth elements. The U.S. and China agreed to a temporary truce during their summit in October last year. As part of the deal, the U.S. agreed to suspend some technology restrictions for one year in exchange for a commitment from China to supply rare earth elements. Related discussions are expected to resume at this summit.

The U.S. Congress is also stepping up efforts to prevent the outflow of AI technology to China. Last month, the House of Representatives pushed forward a series of bipartisan export control bills, including one to block the sale of NVIDIA’s Blackwell chips to China. The legislation also includes provisions allowing Congress to exercise oversight over export license applications for H200 chips to China.

Ryan Fedasiuk, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), assessed that the U.S. exclusion of CEO Huang "sends a strong signal to the Chinese government." He stated, "The Trump administration understands how crucial computing power is in the AI race with China," adding, "In reality, there are not many matters that U.S. semiconductor companies can discuss with the Chinese government."

Meanwhile, there are also expectations that CEO Huang’s exclusion from the China delegation could impact his business strategies. CEO Huang has openly urged the U.S. government to resume exports to China, emphasizing that the Chinese market could be worth up to 50 billion dollars.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.