By Courtney Rozen
WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is set to attend U.S. President Donald Trump’s state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Trump is scheduled to meet with Xi on September 24 in Washington.
Huang’s attendance at the dinner comes amid growing public alarm about the potential danger posed by AI. Nvidia supplies chips to AI developers, positioning the company as a key player in global discussions about the technology.
The U.S. and China are the two major forces driving development of advanced AI tools and the technology’s global adoption.
State dinners are among the highest diplomatic honors a U.S. president can bestow on a foreign leader and are typically reserved for heads of allied nations.
Hosting a state dinner for Xi is notable because Trump often characterizes China as a rival. Xi hosted a state dinner for Trump when he visited the country in May. Huang attended that gathering, as did SpaceX CEO and former Trump adviser Elon Musk and former Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Trump has hosted one state dinner since his second term began, for Britain’s King Charles and Queen Camilla.
Trump’s press team did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Huang’s attendance at the dinner.
(Reporting by Courtney Rozen; Writing by Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Jasper Ward, Nia Williams and Chris Reese)
