Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Friday he will not be going to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration — opting not to join several of his fellow tech titans slated to fly in to Washington, DC.
Instead, Huang said he will be “on the road” celebrating the Lunar New Year with his employees and their families.
The Taiwan-born Huang, whose company has ridden the AI wave to become the most valuable in the world, celebrated at an Nvidia party in Taipei on Wednesday.
He said he has not spoken with the incoming Trump administration about President Joe Biden’s new artificial intelligence export rules.
“Not yet,” Huang said. “But I’ll look forward to congratulating the Trump administration when they take office.”
Huang attended an Nvidia new year party in Shenzhen on Wednesday, according to Chinese social media posts. He is expected to visit Beijing on Monday for the company’s party there, a source close to Nvidia said.
That same day, Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are planning to attend the inauguration — even skipping the opening of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to remain in DC.
Huang also said he had met with C.C. Wei, the chairman of TSMC, Nvidia’s largest supplier, for lunch and discussed expanding production of Nvidia’s most advanced Blackwell AI chips.
As demand for AI chips has skyrocketed, so has Nvidia’s value. The chip makers has a market cap of $3.4 trillion, and its stock has soared more than 140% over the past 12 months.
But on Monday, the Biden administration revealed new export restrictions on advanced computer chips that could put a dent in Nvidia’s revenues.
However, new U.S. government export restrictions on AI chips may complicate Nvidia’s ability to deliver the robust revenue growth that investors expect.
The regulations limit AI chip exports to most countries except for a select group of close US allies including Taiwan.
They also maintain a block on exports to some countries, including China, as the US tries to close regulatory loopholes and prevent Beijing from acquiring advanced chips that could bolster its military capabilities.
On Monday, Nvidia criticized Washington’s latest effort to tighten its grip on AI chip flows around the world, saying the regulation would jeopardize current US leadership in AI.
While it is unclear how the Trump administration will enforce the new rules, he shares similar views as Biden on the competitive threat from China.
Trump’s team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The new regulations are set to take effect 120 days from publication, giving the new administration time to weigh in.
