Nvidia’s Huang joining Trump on UK state visit next week

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will join President Donald Trump next week on a state visit to the U.K., a person familiar with the plans told CNBC’s Kristina Partsinevelos on Monday.

The person asked to remain anonymous in order to discuss the trip.

The Nvidia chief is one of several U.S. business leaders who are expected to accompany Trump, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwartzman, and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, according to Sky News, which first reported the trip.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was invited, according to the report.

The luminaries are expected to join Trump at a state banquet hosted by King Charles scheduled for next week, according to Sky News.

Though Huang was notably absent from Trump’s White House dinner for tech CEOs last week, his attendance on the U.K trip highlights how committed the chipmaker is to managing its relationship with the president as Nvidia seeks new licenses to sell its current-generation Blackwell chips in China.

Since the company’s access to the Chinese market was thrown into question earlier this year, Huang has developed a close relationship with Trump, praising the president’s commitment to U.S. manufacturing.

Huang has tried to convince the president that allowing Nvidia to export its chips to China is good for U.S. national security because it means that the U.S. will continue leading the AI race.

Trump has praised Nvidia for being a technological leader, and was pleased when the company topped a $4 trillion market cap, Huang previously said.

Nvidia said earlier this year that its access to the Chinese market had been cut off by the Trump administration using export controls. Huang then met with Trump at the White House twice over the summer and secured export waivers for its China AI chip, called the H20.

Trump said that he negotiated a 15% cut of those chip sales with Huang. Nvidia said last month that details of the U.S. government’s cut had not been finalized.

Huang also joined Trump on a trip to Saudi Arabia for an investment forum in May.

Nvidia previously said it had to scrap H20 chips that could have accounted for $8 billion in sales in a single quarter. It said it could sell as much as $5 billion of the H20 chips this quarter, depending on the geopolitical environment.

But Nvidia is now focusing on getting licenses to sell newer chips to China, and Huang told investors last month there is a “real possibility” that it can get approval.