Nvidia CEO skips Trump’s inauguration for Lunar New Year Asia visit, source says

Jensen Huang is expected to miss the ceremony, while Apple’s Tim Cook, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Tesla’s Elon Musk are attending

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang attends the opening ceremony of a plant of Siliconware Precision Industries in Taiwan on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:30pm, 17 Jan 2025

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on January 20, bucking a trend among high-profile technology leaders.

Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, according to a person familiar with the situation. He had never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the plans had not been announced.

That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending co-founders or CEOs to the event. That includes Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon.com co-founder Jeff Bezos, as well as Tesla head Elon Musk, a close Trump ally.

A representative for Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia declined to comment on Huang’s whereabouts or whether there had been communication with the incoming administration.

Workers put the finishing touches on the presidential reviewing stand outside the White House, ahead of president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. Photo: AP

Huang said earlier this month that he would be delighted to meet Trump and “do whatever we can to make this administration succeed”. But he had not yet been invited to the president-elect’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Huang said at the time.