By Karen Freifeld
WASHINGTON, May 11 (Reuters) – Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is not going to Beijing during President Donald Trump’s trip to China this week, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.
Huang was not invited, the source said, with the White House focusing more on agriculture and commercial aviation matters, such as orders for Boeing planes, on the current trip. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A number of CEOs were expected to travel with Trump to help drum up business for U.S. companies, a top priority for his administration.
A person familiar with the matter confirmed last week that Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser was invited. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon will attend as long as the trip goes ahead as planned, another source with knowledge of the matter said last week.
Trump has developed a strong relationship with Huang since he has been in office and agreed to allow the company’s H200 AI chips to be exported to China. But they have not yet been sold, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on April 22nd, citing difficulties with Chinese companies getting permission to buy them from the Chinese government.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski)
