Nvidia CEO Huang Takes Trump Call Onstage and Shows Unreleased Apple Foldable

Huang, wearing his now-signature alligator leather jacket, was handed the phone to answer the call, TechCrunch reported. The appearance generated headlines for what he said, but the unreleased Apple hardware in his hand also drew notice. The phone is priced at $1,999.

Once Huang put Trump on speaker, the conversation turned to AI safety. The two men appeared to agree that mounting fears about AI equate to what Trump called a “hoax.” Trump argued that the real winners of the AI panic are China and “political people,” and that the technology is too big — “bigger than the internet,” he said — to slow down over. During the same exchange, Huang said to Trump, “Did you hear that? Thousands of people are clapping.”

TechCrunch reported that it is not known whether Huang truly shares those views or was not in a position to say otherwise. Nvidia’s business model depends largely on AI labs buying more chips, so downplaying existential risk is an obvious move if Huang cares about the company’s share price. Nvidia stock was up 33% over the past year but fell a few percentage points that day.

While much of the attention focused on Trump’s surprise call, some observers noticed the $1,999 phone in Huang’s hand, according to TechCrunch. That may have been Huang’s own message. A decade after Apple stopped putting Nvidia hardware in its own devices, Apple now needs Nvidia enough to run part of Apple Intelligence on it.

The juxtaposition placed the political argument over AI safety alongside the commercial relationship between two major technology companies. Trump’s remarks dismissed the idea that AI risks should slow the technology’s development, while Huang’s presence with the unreleased Apple device highlighted how Nvidia’s chips remain central to the AI products other companies are building. TechCrunch reported that the call and the phone both became part of the same onstage moment.