At a recent AI summit in Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump unveiled his administration’s new AI Action Plan, aiming to secure America’s dominance in the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence sector. But the spotlight quickly shifted from policy to personality when Trump candidly admitted he had never heard of Nvidia or its CEO Jensen Huang—before suggesting they should be broken up.
During his speech, Trump thanked leading figures in the AI industry, referring to one standout individual: “somebody that’s amazing,” he said, referencing Jensen Huang. Yet, his familiarity with the Nvidia CEO seemed to be a recent development. Trump recounted his initial response upon learning about Nvidia’s market hold: “I said, look, we’ll break this guy up — this is before I learned the facts of life — I said we’ll break ’em up.”
According to Trump, his advisors informed him that Nvidia essentially controls 100% of the AI chip market. In disbelief, he asked, “Who the hell is he? What’s his name?” before adding, “What the hell is Nvidia? I’ve never heard of it before.”
Trump humorously noted his intention to stir up competition, only to be told it wouldn’t be easy. He was advised that even assembling “the greatest minds” to work in tandem would leave them a decade behind Nvidia—“if Huang ran it totally incompetently from now on,” he quoted. Trump ultimately acknowledged Huang’s exceptional leadership, saying, “And then I got to know Jensen, and now I see why.”
While the anecdote drew both laughter and criticism, it also underscored the extraordinary rise of Nvidia. With its stock price skyrocketing and a current $4 trillion market cap, the company has evolved into the AI industry’s backbone, providing essential computing hardware worldwide.
Trump’s AI Action Plan itself outlines three major objectives: to accelerate AI innovation by cutting regulatory hurdles, enhance domestic AI infrastructure, and promote American AI technologies among allies. The plan also hints at tougher export restrictions on semiconductors and component subsystems—a potential complication for firms like Nvidia, which already face tight limits on foreign sales.
