At the last minute, Huang Renxun boarded Air Force One and accompanied Trump on his visit to China.

Bloomberg reported that Huang Renxun, CEO of NVIDIA, was added as a last-minute member and boarded the U.S. presidential aircraft "Air Force One" on May 13, accompanying Trump on his trip to China. White House spokesperson Zhang Zhenxi stated that Huang's itinerary had been adjusted—“it just happened to work out.” Around 9:30 a.m., journalist Gutin from the New York Post posted photos on social media, claiming to have seen Huang Renxun boarding Air Force One during a refueling stop in Alaska, en route with Trump to China.

Notably, the initial list of accompanying business leaders released by the White House included only Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, and executives from Boeing—but Huang Renxun was not among them. This sudden addition, seemingly accidental, actually carries deep signals of the underlying Sino-U.S. technological rivalry and a pragmatic compromise in reality.

As the global leader in AI chips, NVIDIA cannot afford to ignore the massive potential of the Chinese market. However, it has long been constrained by U.S. chip export controls targeting China, which have continuously pressured corporate revenue and growth prospects. Huang Renxun has repeatedly spoken out publicly against extreme chip embargoes, fully aware that cutting off access to the Chinese market would severely damage the company’s interests. His last-minute inclusion is thus both a proactive move by NVIDIA to secure market space and seek policy relaxation—and an indication of pressure from the U.S. industrial sector urging Washington to revise its extreme technological containment strategy.

This sudden development reveals the internal contradictions within U.S. technology policy. While aiming to maintain technological hegemony over China, the U.S. cannot afford to abandon the immense economic benefits tied to the Chinese market, forcing a pragmatic compromise. Compared to other accompanying companies, NVIDIA’s involvement is highly targeted, directly addressing the core disputes in the fields of semiconductors and AI between China and the United States. Overall, this move sends a signal that the U.S. is willing to ease technological confrontation to some extent, confirming that a comprehensive blockade of China is neither practical nor sustainable. The competition-cooperation dynamic in Sino-U.S. technology relations may be entering a subtle phase of adjustment.

Original: toutiao.com/article/1865041004486791/

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