Huang often mingles at street food stalls, barber shops, signs autographs, poses for photos, and once seen singing with Taiwan street performers.

With help from a longtime Silicon Valley investor turned White House insider, Mr. Huang got the administration to reverse course on restrictions.

Jensen Huang pulled off something of a political miracle this week for Nvidia shareholders. As the U.S. and China continue to growl at one another over tariffs and other elements of the trade war between the two countries and the race to attain AI superiority, Huang convinced Donald Trump to lift the ban on select AI chip sales to China.