Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang tells Trump he won’t let an AI slowdown happen
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was onstage at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles on Monday morning, alongside the podcast’s hosts, venture capitalists Chamath Palihapitiya and Jason Calacanis and White House advisers David Friedberg and David Sacks, when he got a phone call he couldn’t send to voicemail: President Donald Trump. Huang put the call on speaker for the room. Trump joked that Huang, who “can develop the most complex computer chip in the world,” couldn’t figure out how to put him on speaker himself; in fact Huang had been asking stagehands for an extra microphone so he could project the call to the audience.
The call interrupted a discussion onstage about Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s public call to “slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI.” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have both said they agree with Amodei; Huang’s views, as the article frames it, have diverged. Trump told Huang that people pushing for a slowdown are “playing right in the hands of a lot of people that don’t want to see it happen,” whether “political people” or China, and called the concern “a hoax.” Huang replied, “You’re right. We’re not going to let that happen, sir,” drawing applause from the crowd.
The exchange came amid a broader argument, made by Trump and allies including Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan, that rising public opposition to data center construction is part of an international campaign to slow US economic growth. Gallup polling cited in the piece complicates that framing: seven in 10 Americans oppose data center construction in their own area, with more than 50% of respondents citing the effect on environmental resources and about 20% citing cost-of-living increases and quality-of-life concerns. Trump closed the call by telling Huang the administration would move “prudently” rather than halt the industry: “We have to do things and we have to do them prudently, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop an industry. So I’m with you all the way. I didn’t even know how you felt about it. I just hoped you felt the same way as me. We’re going to lead.”
Key facts
- During a live, put-on-speaker call from President Trump at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles on Monday morning, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang backed Trump’s dismissal of AI-slowdown concerns as “a hoax.”
- The call interrupted a discussion of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s call to slow the pace of AI capability improvements, a position Elon Musk and Sam Altman have said they agree with, while Huang’s views have diverged.
- Trump said pushback on AI development plays into the hands of “political people” or China; Huang replied, “You’re right. We’re not going to let that happen, sir.”
- Gallup polling cited in the article found seven in 10 Americans oppose data center construction in their area, with more than 50% citing environmental-resource effects and about 20% citing cost-of-living and quality-of-life concerns.
- Trump told Huang the administration would proceed “prudently” but would not stop the industry, saying, “We’re going to lead.”
Why it matters
This is a live, unscripted alignment between the White House and one of AI’s most powerful hardware suppliers on whether development should slow down, delivered in front of a live audience rather than through a press statement. It came right after Huang and the All-In hosts discussed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s public call for a slower pace, a position Elon Musk and Sam Altman have both endorsed. Huang broke from them in real time, on the phone with the president, calling Trump’s “it’s a hoax” framing correct. The summit itself blurs the line between AI boosters and the administration: two of its co-hosts, David Friedberg and David Sacks, are sitting White House advisers.
Who it affects
Nvidia’s public position on AI-development pace; Dario Amodei, whose slowdown call was singled out and rejected on air; Musk and Altman, named as siding with Amodei rather than Huang; the All-In podcast’s co-hosts, two of whom hold formal White House roles; and people living near planned or existing data centers, whose opposition Trump and Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan describe as an “international psyop” rather than a response to local costs.
How to use it
There is no product here to buy or install. The practical takeaway is a policy signal: the administration shows no sign of slowing AI development or data center buildout for environmental or cost-of-living reasons, and is treating public opposition, which Gallup put at seven in 10 Americans locally, as something to manage rhetorically rather than address with new restrictions. Anyone tracking data center siting, AI infrastructure investment or the politics around AI regulation should read this as continued federal tailwind, with Trump’s only caveat being to move “prudently.”
How solid is it
TechCrunch describes the call in detail, with Trump put on speaker for the room, and quotes both men directly and at length. The claim that Huang’s views have “diverged” from Musk, Altman and Amodei is the outlet’s own characterization; the article does not otherwise detail Huang’s reasoning beyond his one-line agreement on the call. The Gallup figures are cited without the poll’s sample size, field dates or geographic scope.
Risks and caveats
The article sets Trump’s “hoax” framing directly against its own Gallup numbers, which show real, majority-level public concern: seven in 10 opposed to data centers in their own area, over half citing environmental effects, about a fifth citing cost of living, a tension the piece flags without resolving. Huang’s agreement is a single reactive line, “You’re right,” not a stated policy position, so it should be read as an endorsement of Trump’s framing in the moment rather than a fully articulated view on AI-development pace or data center siting.
“We’re not going to let that happen. It’s a hoax.”
— Donald Trump, on a call with Jensen Huang at the All-In Summit