During Nvidia's all-hands meeting on Thursday, CEO Jensen Huang received a call on his mobile phone that forced him to briefly interrupt the event. Attendees clearly recognized the voice of U.S. President Donald Trump coming through Huang's onstage microphone, though they could not make out the content of the conversation. After less than a minute, Huang returned to the stage and resumed the meeting as if nothing had happened.
The Unexpected Call During the All-Hands
Nvidia's all-hands meetings are typically structured with Huang presenting or answering questions from employees at the company's Santa Clara, California headquarters, while thousands of remote workers tune in via livestream. The phone interruption surprised everyone, but no one in attendance could hear the president's words. A Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment on the incident, but employees buzzed with curiosity about the inadvertent interruption by the head of state.
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Trump's Social Media Reaction and Nvidia's Record Numbers
A few hours after the call, Trump posted on Truth Social a congratulatory message to Huang for the "incredible" quarterly sales and rosy financial forecast for the next year. Nvidia had reported on Wednesday second-quarter revenue of $96 billion, up 106% from the same period last year. This result underscores the company's dominant role in the AI chip sector.
Nvidia's Relationship with the Trump Administration
The president's direct call comes at a delicate moment for Nvidia. On the same Thursday, the company announced the creation of a political action committee (PAC) funded by employees, aiming to donate to federal candidates as the debate over AI policy intensifies. It is no secret that Nvidia and the Trump administration have had divergent views on how to regulate open-source AI models and on restrictions to the sale of advanced chips to China. The news of the PAC was first reported by Bloomberg Law.
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The Potential Acquisition of Hugging Face
Additionally, The Information recently reported that Nvidia has agreed to acquire the open-source platform Hugging Face, which makes AI datasets, models, and development tools widely available to software engineers. According to Business Insider, the acquisition could be valued at more than $13 billion, a figure that would almost certainly require approval from U.S. antitrust regulators. This move would further consolidate Nvidia's position in the AI ecosystem but also increase regulatory scrutiny on the company.
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The call from Trump to Huang, though brief, highlights the growing intersection of politics and technology. Nvidia, under Huang's leadership, has skillfully navigated between commercial interests and institutional relationships, as evidenced by frequent trips to Washington to lobby on behalf of chip sales and AI infrastructure. It remains to be seen how relations with the White House will evolve ahead of the next elections and decisions on AI regulation. For more on Nvidia's recent moves, you can read this article on the latest hardware innovations, or discover how tech companies handle online threats. For broader context on government-industry relations, consult the original article on Wired.
