BEIJING — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said it would be “a great honor” to travel to China with Donald Trump. But he isn’t among the executives joining the U.S. president to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping — a sign the chipmaker’s sales in one of its most important markets are unlikely to recover soon.
Huang has visited China multiple times in the last 18 months, including a high-profile trip last summer, underscoring Nvidia’s efforts to maintain ties in a market that once accounted for at least a fifth of its data center revenue.
But he is absent from Trump’s closely watched visit this week, when more than a dozen U.S. executives will join the president, including chip company Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon, Tesla’s Elon Musk and Apple’s Tim Cook. Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg is also part of the delegation, as the U.S. planemaker is expected to secure its first major Chinese order in years.
Nvidia’s most advanced chips, widely used for training AI models, have faced tighter U.S. restrictions on China sales over the last four years. The company said in February that U.S.-government-approved versions of the chips had yet to be allowed into China.
The U.S. chipmaker’s China sales are unlikely to recover anytime soon, experts told CNBC.
There would be “very little” for Nvidia to gain in terms of deliverables if Huang joined Trump’s delegation, Hao Hong, chief investment officer at Lotus Asset Management, told CNBC’s Emily Tan on “The China Connection” on Tuesday.
“It’s highly unlikely that the more advanced form of Nvidia chips would be approved by the Trump administration for China to purchase,” Hong said, adding that technology “decoupling” between the U.S. and China is likely to increase.
“I think China realized that the tech rivalry between the two countries will be one of the key determinant factors going forward to determine the relative competitive position in the global geopolitics between the two countries,” Hong said.
Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
Huang told CNBC’s Jim Cramer last week: “We should let the president announce whatever he decides to announce … If invited, it would be a privilege, it would be a great honor to represent the United States.”
Trump is scheduled to arrive in Beijing late on Wednesday local time for two days of meetings with Xi. It will be the first visit by a sitting U.S. president in nearly a decade.
