Nvidia Stock Turns Lower. Why CEO Huang Is Taking a Risk With His China Visit.

Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang will meet senior Chinese officials in Beijing this week, according to multiple media reports. (I-HWA CHENG/AFP via Getty Images)

Nvidia stock fell to start the week as CEO Jensen Huang looks to reaffirm his company’s commitment to the Chinese market in the face of U.S. restrictions.

Huang will meet senior Chinese officials in Beijing this week, according to multiple media reports.

Nvidia shares were down 1.1% to $163.17 in early trading Monday while the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 indexes were both down 0.2%. The chip maker last week became the first company to close at a market value above $4 trillion.

Huang will hold a media briefing in the Chinese capital on Wednesday, Reuters reported Sunday, citing an Nvidia official.

While the wider market is being hit by tariff worries, Nvidia investors may be hoping that Huang will announce a new product to be able to continue selling chips to China regardless of President Donald Trump’s tightened export-control rules.

Huang visited the country in April, shortly after disclosing that selling H20 artificial-intelligence chips to China would require a U.S. government license in the future, essentially locking the company out of the Chinese market.

The company is planning to launch a new China-focused chip as early as September, the Financial Times reported last week, citing people familiar with the matter. The chip would be a version of Nvidia’s Blackwell RTX Pro 6000, adapted to meet export restrictions, according to the Financial Times.

On Sunday, KeyBanc Capital Markets John Vinh said in a note to clients, Nvidia is considering whether the RTX 5090 or RTX 5080 gaming cards could also be an option. Either choice would have a fraction of the computing power versus the effectively banned H20 and will not be able to generate comparable revenue.

Nvidia declined to comment on what Huang might announce in China.

Nvidia and Huang have to walk a difficult line between looking to regain access to China and not angering American lawmakers advocating for tighter control over technology exports. On Friday, a bipartisan pair of U.S. senators sent a letter to Huang about his coming China trip, asking the CEO to refrain from meeting with companies that might be undermining chip-export controls.

Among other chip makers, Advanced Micro Devices was down 1.9% and Broadcom was off 0.4% Monday morning.

Write to Elsa Ohlen at elsa.ohlen@barrons.com