‘Trump asked me to come’

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that U.S. President Donald Trump “asked me to come” to the China summit in Beijing, when asked by reporters about his trip.

Huang was a later addition to the high-stakes trip on Tuesday, after his name was noticably absent from a list of executives making the trip, shared by a White House official on Monday.

“This is an incredible opportunity for me to represent the United States of course, and to come support President Trump in one of the most important summits in human history,” Huang told reporters on the sidelines of the event on Thursday.

“The two presidents, President Xi and President Trump have such a wonderful relationship, this is an incredible opportunity for us to rely on the relationships to build a much, much better partnership,” he added.

After seeing the media coverage of Huang’s absence from the delegation, Trump called the Nvidia executive and asked him to join, a source familiar with the situation told CNBC on Wednesday. Huang flew to Alaska to board Air Force One, the source said.

In a social media post, Trump confirmed Huang was on board Air Force One and denied that the Nvidia boss had not been invited, as reported by media outlets including CNBC. 

Trade is top of the agenda in Beijing, with Trump commenting that opening up China for U.S. businesses would be his “first request” to Xi.

“I will be asking President Xi, a Leader of extraordinary distinction, to ‘open up’ China so that these brilliant people can work their magic, and help bring the People’s Republic to an even higher level!” Trump said, referring to the wider delegation of U.S. business representatives.

The delegation includes Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Apple CEO Tim Cook, BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink and Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, among others.

“Today’s morning ceremony was very uplifting. President Xi was very inspiring, very welcoming, and President Trump was very inspiring and very welcoming,” Huang said.