Meeting is latest sign of Trump’s focus on AI technology
Sitdown comes after new Chinese AI model sparked concern
President Donald Trump will meet with Nvidia Corp. chief executive Jensen Huang at the White House on Friday, according to people familiar, days after a new Chinese AI model from DeepSeek sparked concern among technology industry leaders and tanked the US stock market.
Nvidia stock rose 2% on the news. Other chip stocks also rallied. SOXL up 7%; Super Micro up 6%; Arm up 5%; Marvell, Broadcom up 4.7%.
The meeting is the latest sign of Trump’s growing commitment to the rapidly evolving sphere of AI technology and comes at the end of a rocky week for the world’s leading chipmaker. Plans for the meeting were shared by people familiar on condition of anonymity.
The recent debut of a powerful AI model from Chinese startup DeepSeek sent Nvidia and other tech stocks into a tailspin Monday and triggered a debate in Washington about how strictly the US should control Nvidia processors that have become points of geopolitical leverage.
Trump and his allies quickly sought to tamp down worries over the new and more efficient Chinese AI model despite it signaling that the Chinese may have caught up with US technological capacity on artificial intelligence. He has described it as a “wake-up call” and a “positive development.”
Nvidia declined to comment on the planned meeting between Huang and Trump.
Bloomberg has reported that the Trump administration has begun looking into whether DeepSeek purchased Nvidia chips through intermediaries in Singapore. Some officials are eying tightening existing curbs on Nvidia sales to China to capture the most recent model the chipmaker designed for that market.
Trump also said that new “AI solutions” from the US would be introduced in the near future. On Thursday, OpenAI’s Sam Altman teased new advances in OpenAI’s products in a closed door meeting, while urging US lawmakers to continue investing heavily in physical infrastructure to support future artificial intelligence development.
Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order that demands a new AI policy direction by ordering an interagency group to craft policy within six months intended to ensure US dominance in the field. He also unveiled a $100 billion artificial intelligence infrastructure investment — with goals of $500 billion down the road — from Altman, SoftBank Group Corp.’s Masayoshi Son and Oracle Corp.’s Larry Ellison.