Jensen Huang got a last-minute invite to ride Air Force One to Beijing. He took it.

The Nvidia CEO landed in China on Wednesday alongside President Trump, Elon Musk, and a delegation of America's most powerful tech executives for the first visit by a sitting US president to Beijing in nearly a decade. Huang has been lobbying officials in Washington and Beijing for nearly a year to allow Nvidia to sell its AI chips to China. This is his best shot at making it happen.

Trump was greeted on the tarmac by a brass band and flag wavers as he descended the steps of Air Force One. Vice President Han Zheng met the delegation. The agenda for Thursday includes a welcome ceremony, bilateral meeting with Xi Jinping, a tour of the historic Temple of Heaven, and a state banquet. Friday brings tea and a working lunch before departure.

What Is Actually on the Table

Tariffs, rare earths, AI, the Iran war, and Taiwan. That is the official list. But the AI chip question is the one that matters most for this publication's audience.

The Biden administration imposed export controls on advanced AI chips to China in October 2022 and tightened them twice more. Trump inherited these restrictions and, despite his general preference for deregulation, has not loosened them. The reason is simple: Anthropic's Mythos model spooked the national security establishment into realizing that frontier AI capabilities are genuine dual-use technology. You cannot sell the chips and then complain when the other side builds something dangerous with them.

But Huang's pitch is straightforward: Nvidia cannot leave hundreds of billions of dollars of revenue on the table indefinitely. China represents roughly 20% of global AI chip demand. If Nvidia does not sell to them, Chinese companies like Huawei's HiSilicon division will fill the gap with domestic alternatives. The export controls do not prevent China from getting AI chips. They just prevent Nvidia from being the one to profit.

China Is Not Begging

Here is the twist that makes this summit different from every prior US-China tech negotiation. Beijing is not desperate for Nvidia chips anymore. When the Trump administration made exceptions to allow certain Nvidia chips to be sold to China, the Chinese response was effectively: no thanks, we would rather direct all domestic chip demand toward Chinese producers.

DeepSeek's timing drives the point home. The Chinese AI lab announced new model capabilities just before the summit, giving Beijing fresh confidence that US export controls have not actually derailed China's AI progress. The New York Times reported that China is seeking "AI independence" in a way that weakens Trump's leverage.

Senator Steve Daines, who just returned from a congressional trip to China, told CNBC he expects "Boeing, beef, and beans" as the headline deliverables from the summit. Not chips. Not AI. That should tell you everything about how realistic a chip deal actually is.

The Musk Factor

Musk being on the plane adds a layer of absurdity. He is suing OpenAI and its CEO in federal court. Closing arguments in that trial are Thursday. And he is flying to Beijing on a diplomatic mission with the president while simultaneously trying to destroy the company that his primary AI rival, xAI, competes with. The man is literally on Air Force One on the same day his lawyers are preparing closing arguments against Sam Altman.

The summit runs through Friday. Watch for any joint statement on AI governance, chip trade language, or surprise deals involving Nvidia, Tesla, or other American tech companies. If AI controls loosen even slightly, the implications for the global AI arms race would be massive. If they do not, Huang will have taken the most expensive ride of his career for nothing.

First reported by The New York Times. Additional reporting from CNBC (Chloe Taylor), Euronews, Rest of World, and Fox Business.