Nvidia's Jensen Huang Tells Trump Live Onstage: AI Slowdown 'Not Going to Happen'

The call arrived Monday morning while Huang was appearing onstage with the hosts of the All-In podcast: tech investors Chamath Palihapitiya and Jason Calacanis, alongside White House advisers David Friedberg and David Sacks. Huang told the president he was "onstage with the besties," then routed the call through the room's speakers so the audience could hear both sides of the conversation.

Trump's message, audible to conference attendees, was blunt: "We will not lose the AI race! And whatever Dario said this weekend won't stop our progress." The president also joked that Huang could not work out how to put him on speaker, though Huang appeared to be signaling stagehands for an extra microphone to project the call.

The panel discussion leading up to the call had centered on Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's call to "slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI." SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have both publicly said they agree with Amodei's position.

Huang's stance has diverged from that group. Nvidia's chief executive told the president the industry would not allow an AI slowdown to happen, according to the exchange heard by summit attendees.

The moment played out in front of a live audience of investors and technology executives, with Huang openly demonstrating his access to the president during a conference session.