Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang tells Trump ‘we’re not going to let [an AI slowdown] happen’

Jensen Huang received a phone call from President Donald Trump while speaking on stage at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles on Monday morning. He could not send the call to voicemail.

“I’m onstage with the besties,” Huang told Trump. He was referring to the venture capitalists hosting the All-In podcast, including Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, and White House advisers David Friedberg and David Sacks.

Huang put Trump on speaker so the audience could hear the conversation. This move caused concern for public relations teams everywhere.

“The great thing about life is Jensen can develop the most complex computer chip in the world… but he can’t figure out how to put you on speaker,” Trump said. Huang was asking stagehands for an extra microphone to project the call to the crowd.

The group on stage had been discussing a call from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to slow the pace of AI improvement. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have publicly supported Amodei. Huang’s views differ from theirs.

“They’re just playing right in the hands of a lot of people that don’t want to see it happen,” Trump said. “That could be political people. It could also be China. And we’re not going to let that happen. It’s a hoax.”

“You’re right. We’re not going to let that happen, sir,” Huang replied. The crowd applauded.

Trump and allies such as Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan believe the growing sentiment against building data centers is a psychological operation to stop American economic growth. Public concern comes from simpler sources. Recent Gallup polling shows seven in 10 Americans oppose building data centers in their area. More than 50% of respondents cited effects on environmental resources. About 20% said they were concerned about cost-of-living increases and effects on their quality of life.

“We have to be a little bit careful… We have to do things and we have to do them prudently, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop an industry,” Trump said to Huang. “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.”

What it means

Developers and creators face a clear choice. They can follow a strategy to slow down AI development, or they can continue building tools without restriction. The current conversation suggests the industry will not pause.

For the people making things, this means the current tools and models will continue to improve. There will be no official halt on new capabilities. Users can expect software to get faster and more powerful as long as the companies building them decide to proceed.