Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, drew headlines Monday at the All‑In conference in Los Angeles when former President Donald Trump called him live on stage. During the exchange, Huang — wearing his signature alligator leather jacket — was handed Apple’s newly announced foldable iPhone, a device not scheduled to arrive in stores for another five weeks, so he could answer the call.
The call and the topic: AI safety
After Trump was put on speaker, the conversation turned to AI safety. The two men appeared to agree that growing fears about AI are overblown — Trump called those fears a “hoax.” He argued that the real beneficiaries of AI panic are China and “political people,” and said the technology is “bigger than the internet,” suggesting it should not be slowed. During the exchange Huang told Trump, “Did you hear that? Thousands of people are clapping.”
It is unclear whether Huang personally shares Trump’s views or was simply not in a position to contradict him publicly. NVIDIA’s business model relies heavily on AI labs and service providers buying more GPUs and accelerators, so downplaying existential risk would be a predictable stance if protecting the company’s market position is a priority.
Market note
According to the report, NVIDIA’s share price has risen 33 percent over the past year, though it fell by a few percentage points on the day of the conference.
The phone on stage and its possible message
While attention centered on Trump’s surprise call, several observers noticed the $1,999 Apple foldable in Huang’s hand. The gesture carried both practical and symbolic meaning: a decade after Apple stopped using NVIDIA hardware in its own devices, the article suggests Apple now needs NVIDIA components again to run parts of Apple Intelligence on the device.
In sum, Huang’s onstage moment combined a political interaction, a tech PR opportunity, and a subtle business signal about continuing interdependence between major AI hardware suppliers and consumer tech vendors.
