Jensen Huang

In a New York Times 'Ezra Klein Show' interview published around September 24, 2026, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that if frontier AI labs such as OpenAI and Anthropic cannot contain their AI experiments and guarantee they won't 'get out' and damage the world, 'we have to shut the labs down' because the cost to humanity and resulting civil or criminal liabilities would be too great. He rejected the argument that competitive pressure prevents labs from slowing down, saying companies have agency to choose not to launch unsafe products, and said he is not opposed to AI regulation but considers the current push a 'distraction' from applying existing law. He separately dismissed AI researcher Geoffrey Hinton's 10% estimate of AI-caused societal destruction as not grounded in science.

On May 13-14, 2026, after media coverage of his absence from Trump's China delegation, Trump personally called Jensen Huang who then flew to Alaska to board Air Force One. Huang told reporters 'President Trump asked me to come' and praised both Trump and Xi Jinping as 'very inspiring, very welcoming.' The trip raised questions about Nvidia's China business and export control policy given Huang controls 80%+ of the AI accelerator market.

In December 2025, after sustained lobbying by CEO Jensen Huang, the Trump administration approved Nvidia's sale of advanced H200 AI chips to China with the U.S. government receiving a 25% cut of future sales. Huang met directly with President Trump on December 4 and with Republican senators in closed-door meetings. Senator Elizabeth Warren alleged Huang 'used donations and personal access' to influence policy, citing his attendance at a $1 million-per-plate Trump fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago and Nvidia's donations to Trump's White House ballroom project. Warren called the decision one that 'sells out American national security' and demanded Huang testify before Congress.

At Nvidia's November 2025 GTC conference, Jensen Huang gave 'a shout-out for Secretary Chris Wright' (a climate denier) and advocated for gas, coal, and oil to power AI data centers. Huang praised Trump's energy policy for allowing AI scaling and used language like 'Make America rich again.' Observers called the tone 'devotional' to Trump.

In October 2025, Jensen Huang confirmed NVIDIA is donating to Trump's White House ballroom project, calling it 'a historic and national monument.' He also attended a $1M/person Mar-a-Lago dinner and closed his October 2025 keynote saying 'Thank you for your service in making America great again.'

In late 2025, Jensen Huang opposed the bipartisan Guaranteeing Access and Innovation for National Artificial Intelligence (GAIN AI) Act, which would have required chipmakers to give U.S. companies first pick of chips before selling to China or foreign adversaries. The act passed the Senate in October as part of the annual Defense bill but reportedly faced resistance from the Trump White House after Huang's lobbying. Senator Warren stated Huang was 'sneaking in to meet with Senate Republicans behind closed doors as he kills the bipartisan GAIN AI Act.' Huang also advocated for federal AI regulation to preempt state laws protecting children, renters, and workers.

Unlike Meta, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, Nvidia under Jensen Huang has not announced cuts to DEI programs as of May 2025. The company maintained its Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging initiatives in its 2024 Sustainability Report. However, Nvidia has decreased workforce diversity data transparency since 2022, lagging peers like AMD and Intel.

Jensen Huang did not attend Trump's January 20, 2025 inauguration, unlike most major tech CEOs. He was instead in Beijing for Nvidia's annual meeting, telling reporters 'We have many partners in China, we have been working here for about 25 years... we will continue to cooperate.' Nvidia still donated $1M to the inauguration fund.