Jensen Huang takes Trump call onstage at All-In
Nvidia chief discusses AI safety as Trump calls fears a hoax, chip boom politics plays out as conference theatre
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Connie Loizos
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Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang
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Former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during the dedication ceremony for the opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in John Lewis Plaza on June 18, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois.
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Jensen Huang took a live phone call from President Donald Trump on stage at the All-In conference in Los Angeles, according to TechCrunch. The Nvidia chief executive answered using a foldable iPhone that the outlet says is not yet on sale, then kept the conversation rolling in front of a room of investors and founders. Trump used the moment to dismiss mounting fears about AI as a “hoax,” while Huang told him the crowd was applauding.
The episode matters less as a novelty than as a glimpse of how AI policy is being negotiated in public, by the people who sell the hardware and the people who write the rules. Nvidia’s business depends on AI labs buying more chips; it benefits from any message that frames slowing down as impossible, and from any uncertainty that keeps customers racing to build. Trump, for his part, cast the “real winners” of AI panic as China and “political people,” a line that turns regulation into a geopolitical loyalty test rather than a question of liability, safety standards, or consumer protection.
TechCrunch notes Nvidia shares were up over the past year but slipped on the day of the conference, a reminder that the market is already pricing the sector as if growth is both inevitable and fragile. When the industry’s most important supplier is simultaneously selling acceleration and discussing “AI safety” with a politician who calls safety fears a hoax, the practical outcome is not clarity but a widening gap between rhetoric and enforceable commitments.
The choice of venue also signals where leverage sits. A conference stage offers applause, cameras, and an audience predisposed to treat regulatory friction as an obstacle to innovation rather than a cost of deployment. It also offers something policymakers rarely get in formal hearings: a direct line to the executive who can credibly say what happens to investment if rules change, without having to put that claim in writing.
TechCrunch adds that Apple stopped using Nvidia hardware in its devices about a decade ago, yet now needs Nvidia hardware to run part of Apple Intelligence. In other words, even companies that market tight control of their stacks still end up renting capacity from the same chipmaker when they push AI features to scale.
On Monday in Los Angeles, the most visible “AI safety” discussion was a live call to a conference stage, and the loudest signal came from the clapping in the room.