Trump Called a Tech CEO Live on Stage to Talk About AI
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang took a call from President Donald Trump while onstage at the All-In Podcast's All-In Summit on Monday. He put Trump on speakerphone and told him he was speaking to "thousands" of people. The Verge
Trump said worries about how fast AI is developing are a "hoax." He told the crowd "the robots will not be taking over." He said towns that would have been "dying" without data centers, big buildings full of computers that run AI, were now "really wealthy."
Huang answered with a line about competition in the United States. "We're going to make sure that everybody wins in the AI race in America," he said on the call.
The call came after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay titled "We Must Pace the Frontier" the weekend before. Amodei argued that work on the most advanced AI should slow down and that governments should coordinate on rules.
Huang, along with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, had been announced as a speaker for the All-In Summit 2026 in August. All-In
This was not the first such call to become public. Trump called Huang in the middle of Nvidia's company-wide staff meeting on a Thursday morning in late August. Wired
Huang was scheduled to meet Trump at the White House a day before traveling to China, according to reporting from July 2025. Reuters He was appointed to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in March. White House
Last July, Huang said "America's unique advantage that no country could possibly have is President Trump." White House Nvidia has said it will spend hundreds of billions of dollars over the next four years. White House In May, Huang described Chinese President Xi and Trump as inspiring and welcoming at their meeting in Beijing and called the Xi-Trump summit one of the most important summits in human history. Bloomberg
The broader context here is easy to describe. One group wants shared rules and slower work on the most advanced AI. The other wants faster building of data centers and U.S. supply, and points to local jobs and money as part of the case. The All-In stage showed both views days apart, without settling the difference.
In my view, the practical details matter more than the onstage moment. Where new data centers are built, how electricity deals are signed, and who gets Nvidia's AI chips will decide who can build and sell new products. Close ties help companies work through export rules and permits, and public support helps keep spending on new buildings. For builders, the questions are simple. Where does new computing power appear, on what terms, and with what limits on use in other countries.
Looking at what this means over time, this debate is normal with new technology. One side warns about speed. The other points to jobs and local growth. Both shape how technology spreads. More building usually means better tools and lower costs, even while questions about rules stay open. If current plans hold, more teams will get more computing power, and more work will go into building safe and useful products.
