President Trump welcomed Jensen Huang, the chief executive of the chip giant Nvidia, late Tuesday onto Air Force One as he headed to Beijing for a summit with China’s leader.
Mr. Huang, who leads the world’s most valuable company, had been omitted from a list of business leaders slated to travel to China. But after seeing reports that Mr. Huang wasn’t coming, Mr. Trump called him on Tuesday morning and extended an invitation, said a person familiar with the call.
Mr. Huang flew to Alaska late Tuesday and boarded Air Force One during a layover. For nearly a year, he has been lobbying officials in Washington and Beijing to allow Nvidia to sell its artificial intelligence chips to China.
“Jensen is currently on Air Force One,” Mr. Trump said in a social media post. He said it was an honor to have the Nvidia chief executive, who he called “the Great Jensen Huang,” and other business leaders “journeying to the Great Country of China where I will be asking President Xi, a Leader of extraordinary distinction, to ‘open up’ China so that these brilliant people can work their magic.”
On Monday, the White House released a list of 16 chief executives, including Tim Cook of Apple, Larry Fink of BlackRock and leaders of other companies pushing for deals with China. It did not include Mr. Huang.
That omission was noted across Silicon Valley and Washington. Mr. Huang has forged a strong relationship with Mr. Trump and has acted as a go-between for the administration between Washington and Beijing. His company’s chips have been critical to the A.I. boom that is reshaping the global economy, and are coveted by governments and companies across the world.
Selling A.I. chips to China has been contentious in Washington.
Last summer, Mr. Trump approved the sale of an older generation of Nvidia chips to China and planned to take a cut of those sales. But the Chinese government hasn’t approved any purchases.
Some Republicans have supported legislation that would limit the scope of those sales, and last year, members of Mr. Trump’s own administration intervened to discourage him from permitting the sale of even more advanced A.I. chips for national security reasons.
