Nvidia’s top leadership, including CEO Jensen Huang, hold their global AI conference in Washington for the first time today, a sign of the chip giant’s deepening efforts to court the Trump administration.
The guest list for the event includes senior American politicians and Silicon Valley glitterati, and comes as US officials mull whether to allow Nvidia to sell its cutting-edge Blackwell chips to China. A recent think tank report warned that doing so would significantly shrink American firms’ hardware advantage over Chinese rivals.
The DC meetings are taking place against a backdrop of intensifying competition in the semiconductor sector: US firm Qualcomm on Monday unveiled its foray into AI chip production, saying its first customer will be Saudi Arabia’s state-backed AI company.