How an engineer turned tech mogul became the most influential voice in AI and a key figure in Trump’s trade diplomacy with China.

Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang has been active on the government relations and lobbying front, and now he’s got something big to show for his efforts: the Trump Administration has agreed to lift a ban on selling Nvidia H20 AI chips to China.

As America and China swap shots in the trade battle served up by Donald Trump, Mr Huang has pinged and ponged between Washington and Beijing to reassure both sides it is in their mutual interest to let his company keep selling some of its artificial-intelligence ( AI) chips to Chinese buyers.

The federal government’s past restrictions on AI chip sales inside China were easily the biggest threat to American preeminence in the AI space.

With help from a longtime Silicon Valley investor turned White House insider, Mr. Huang got the administration to reverse course on restrictions.

Nvidia is looking to ship more advanced chips to China than its current generation, CEO Jensen Huang said on Wednesday, as he looks to revitalize sales in the world's second-largest economy.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says the US must win over global AI developers — especially the 50% in China — to lead the future of AI.

Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang should be praised for traveling to China this week in pursuit of expansion in what is a crucial market for all manner of blue-chip U.S. companies. A world that is economically interconnected is a much more peaceful one.

Jensen Huang, Founder & CEO of Nvidia, delivers a speech at the opening ceremony of the third China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, on July 16, 2025. Photo: Chi Jingyi

Nvidia Corp.’s Jensen Huang spent months telling everyone what a grave mistake the US was making restricting shipments of artificial intelligence processors to China — with little sign that his argument was swaying anyone.