Nvidia's Jensen Huang Charms China With AI Diplomacy as Tariff Tensions Linger

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia Corp. NVDA, made a high-profile appearance at the China International Supply Chain Expo this week, delivering a message of cooperation amid lingering trade tensions between the United States and China.

During his third visit to China in less than a year, Huang donned a traditional Chinese tang suit and greeted audiences with a few lines in Mandarin.

His presence, alongside a surge in U.S. company participation, highlighted tentative progress in cross-border diplomacy, South China Morning Post reports.

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Huang announced that the Biden administration had cleared Nvidia to ship its H20 chip to China — a customized, less powerful alternative to the firm’s top-tier AI processors blocked by prior sanctions.

The gesture was framed as part of broader efforts to ease commercial strains between the two nations.

American firms represented the largest foreign group at the event, with attendance up by 15% over last year.

Despite the positive optics, underlying worries about tariff escalations and fractured supply chains still haunted participants, especially in the agricultural and raw materials sectors, the report adds.

A Chinese buyer at the U.S. Grains Council booth said ongoing duties — including a 10% tariff on rice bran — have devastated profits.

According to a U.S. state trade official based in China, many Republican and swing states have shuttered their in-country offices, leaving just a handful of Democrat-led states with an active footprint.

Prospective Chinese investors, too, have put plans on ice due to bureaucratic delays and fears of retaliatory policies.

One Chinese firm in the raw materials space canceled plans to build warehousing infrastructure in the U.S. after zoning and documentation issues compounded post-tariff uncertainties.

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