Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has joined President Donald Trump and xAI founder Elon Musk aboard Air Force One for the administration’s trip to China, according to the White House press pool.
Huang and Musk are two of the leading artificial intelligence innovators in the United States, with their presence on the trip reflecting American strength in the AI industry as the delegation heads to China, America’s top AI competitor.
Huang boarded Air Force One during a refueling stop in Alaska on the way to Asia, according to the New York Post.
There was some initial confusion as to whether Huang was going to be among the tech titans included in the president’s trip. CNBC reported earlier on Tuesday that Huang was not “among the executives joining the U.S. president to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.” Trump refuted the report in a post to his Truth Social account late Tuesday night, rebuking the network for reporting inaccurate information.
“CNBC incorrectly reported that the Great Jensen Huang, of Nvidia, was not invited to the incredible gathering of the World’s Greatest Businessmen/women proudly going to China,” said Trump. “In actuality, Jensen is currently on Air Force One and, unless I ask him to leave, which is highly unlikely, CNBC’s reporting is incorrect or, as they say in politics, FAKE NEWS!”
The Trump administration has made AI innovation a central point of its technology agenda, encouraging deregulation of the industry to allow American investors to more bullishly compete with Chinese companies. Trump hired David Sacks last year as the first White House AI and crypto czar, with him helping steer the administration’s AI agenda and create guidelines and goals like the “AI Action Plan.”
In March, the administration launched a policy framework to guide Congress on AI. The framework emphasized the importance of supporting domestic creators, enabling domestic AI innovation, ensuring American dominance in the industry on an international scale, and fostering a future workforce among the American youth that will be ready to work with AI.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT PRESIDENT TRUMP’S TRIP TO CHINA
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans have embraced the framework, looking to meld the caucus’s desire to stay ahead of China on a global scale with the AI priorities. GOP leadership recently announced an investigation in late April into Airbnb regarding to its use of Chinese AI models.
Trump and the American delegation will be in China for the high-stakes bilateral meetings from Wednesday, May 13 to Friday, May 15.