Jensen Huang reveals details of boarding Air Force One: received a pre-dawn call from Trump, who insisted that Huang accompany him to China

What happened

It has been reported that NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang (黄仁勋) told a story about receiving a pre-dawn call from then-President Donald Trump, who insisted that Huang accompany him to China and that Huang later boarded Air Force One. The account, published by ifeng, describes an unusually direct presidential appeal to a private-sector tech leader to join an official trip. Reportedly, the call came with urgency and a clear insistence from Trump that Huang travel with him.

The immediate context

Huang is the chief executive of NVIDIA (英伟达), the U.S. chipmaker at the center of global AI hardware supply chains. The company’s GPUs power many large language models and advanced computing tasks. That makes any close interaction between its CEO and a U.S. president — especially around travel to China — noteworthy given longstanding tensions over technology, trade and national-security controls.

Why it matters

This anecdote raises questions about the interface between private industry and high-stakes diplomacy. U.S.-China relations have been strained by export controls, sanctions and concerns about advanced semiconductors reaching sensitive users in China. Would a CEO’s presence on a presidential trip be a show of soft diplomacy — or a potential flashpoint with regulators and rivals? It has been reported that the episode highlights how intertwined top-tier technology companies are with geopolitics today.

Broader implications

Whether the call and the boarding were a one-off personal appeal or part of broader outreach is unclear. Reportedly, Huang’s account underscores the extraordinary positions tech leaders can find themselves in as Washington and Beijing negotiate the future of AI and chips. Who sits next to whom on a plane can be more than symbolism — it can shape access, trust and policy in an era where hardware is geopolitics.