Trump's AI Revelation: From Breakup Threats to Nvidia Admiration

Trump wanted to break up Nvidia -- but then its CEO won him over

Lauren Feiner is a senior policy reporter at The Verge, covering the intersection of Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill. She spent 5 years covering tech policy at CNBC, writing about antitrust, privacy, and content moderation reform. Not long ago, President Donald Trump hadn't even heard of Nvidia, the most valuable tech company in the world. But once he found out about the AI chip giant, he says, he wanted to break it up. "Before I learned the facts of life, I said, 'we'll break him up,'" Trump recalled today, in a speech about his new AI Action Plan at an event hosted in Washington, DC. He recounted what seemed to be a conversation between himself and an advisor who he didn't name, who told him it would be "very hard" to break up Nvidia: I said, "why?" I said, "what percentage of the market does he have?" "Sir, he has 100%," they said. "Who the hell is he? What's his name?" "His name is Jensen Huang, Nvidia." I said, "What the hell is Nvidia? I've never heard of it before." He said, "you don't want to know about it, sir." Trump said he backed away from breaking up Nvidia after he realized it could be counterproductive. "I figured we could go in and we could sort of break them up a little bit, get them a little competition," Trump said. "And I found out it's not easy in that business. I said, 'suppose that we put the greatest minds together and they work hand-in-hand for a couple of years.' He said, 'no, it would take at least ten years to catch him if he ran Nvidia totally incompetently from now on.' So I said, 'all right, let's go on to the next one.'" "And then I got to know Jensen, and now I see why," Trump added. Huang successfully convinced the Trump administration to let Nvidia sell its H20 chips to China, opening a significant new avenue of revenue that the US had previously closed due to concerns it could help a US adversary advance its own AI efforts. To assuage those fears, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has insisted that the chips it's now allowing to be sold to China are only the "fourth-best" AI chips, and the idea is to get Chinese developers "addicted to the American technology stack." Regardless of how it plays out for US policy, the change has been a boon for Nvidia, which even before the announcement had become the first publicly traded company worth $4 trillion. Under the Biden administration, the Justice Department had reportedly been probing the company on antitrust grounds. But Trump's apparent about-face on breaking it up means we probably shouldn't expect a lawsuit anytime soon.

President Trump threatened to break up Nvidia, didn't even know what it was -- 'What the hell is Nvidia? I've never heard of it before'

Trump made the admission during a speech to launch his new AI Action Plan During a speech to mark the unveiling of his new AI Action Plan, President Donald Trump revealed that he suggested simply breaking up Nvidia, despite appearing to have never heard of the company or its CEO, Jensen Huang. Trump made the remarks on stage at an AI summit in Washington, D.C., as he unveiled the United States' new AI Action Plan. The President made reference and gave thanks to some of AI's top industry leaders, "And a very special thanks to some of the top industry leaders here, including somebody that's amazing," he said, alluding to Huang. "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," he continued. "They said 'very hard', I said 'Why?' I said, what percentages of the market does he have? 'Sir, he has 100%.'" Trump continued, "I said, 'Who the hell is he? What's his name?' 'His name is Jensen Huang, Nvidia, ' I said, 'What the hell is Nvidia?' I've never heard of it before. "I figured we could go in and we could sort of break them up a little bit, get them a little competition, and I found it's not easy in that business." Trump even claims he suggested putting together "the greatest minds" to work "hand in hand for a couple of years" to try and match Nvidia's success, upon which he says he was told it would take 10 years to catch Nvidia if Huang ran it "totally incompetently from now on." Trump celebrated Huang and his achievements, noting, "And then I got to know Jensen, and now I see why." Nvidia's stock price has rocketed in the last ten years, notably spurred by its success in providing hardware for AI computing across the industry. It recently crossed $4 trillion in market capitalization, despite having only reached the $1 trillion milestone two years ago. As for Trump's new AI Action Plan, the 20-page document sets out three clear goals: accelerate AI innovation by cutting red tape and regulation, build up American AI infrastructure, and encourage the use of American AI tech among allies and friendly nations. Despite the provisions for the proliferation of AI tech built by the likes of Nvidia, the document also alludes to the expansion of export controls and additional bans on component subsystems used in semiconductor manufacturing.

Trump briefly considered breaking up Nvidia to spur competition, then backed off

Recap: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's recent visit to Washington seems to have paid off in more ways than imagined. The company successfully convinced the Trump administration to loosen recent export controls, and the president reconsidered breaking up Nvidia after learning more about the chip-making business. President Donald Trump said he briefly considered splitting up Nvidia, the world's largest chipmaker and most valuable company. Trump initially thought doing so might intensify competition in the artificial intelligence and chipmaking industries, but later learned that any new players would take years to catch up. The president made the comments at a recent AI summit in Washington while praising CEO Jensen Huang, who was in attendance. Aides told Trump, who hadn't heard of Nvidia or Huang until recently, that a breakup would be tough. Nvidia's biggest victory from the visit came from gaining permission to resume sales of H20 data center GPUs in China. The company was forced to cancel orders and halt sales following the Trump administration's April export controls, halving its Chinese market share and causing billions in losses. The US is concerned about potential military applications for Nvidia's advanced chips, but Huang said China's military wouldn't need American technology. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC that the Trump administration allowed the export ban reversal because the H20 is no longer Nvidia's fastest product. US officials also hope to maintain China's reliance on US chips and delay the development of homegrown solutions, such as DeepSeek. Huang explained that the US can remain a leader in the AI market if other countries build upon American technology, favoring open-source research and development. However, restarting H20 sales in China will take time. Nvidia will fulfill orders until remaining stocks are depleted, but manufacturing more could take nine months, according to The Information. TSMC's semiconductor production facilities are fully occupied, and Nvidia shifted production capacity to other products following the ban. The AI boom has increased the chipmaker's value by more than an order of magnitude over the past three years, turning it into the world's first $4 trillion public company. Nvidia's stock has increased by around 20% since the start of this year. However, some warn that the market has become dangerously overhyped. A top economist recently demonstrated that AI has created a bubble larger than the turn-of-the-millennium dot-com bubble. Another analyst claims that rising stocks of other tech giants, which represent most of the S&P 500's recent growth, depend almost entirely on sales of Nvidia GPUs.

'What the hell is Nvidia?' said Trump while presenting on AI

A few days ago, President Donald Trump admitted that he had never heard of Nvidia or its CEO Jensen Huang even as he wanted to break the company up, reports Tom's Hardware. All of this occurred at Trump's presentation of his AI Action Plan in Washington, making the remarks while presenting on stage: "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," he continued. "They said 'very hard', I said 'Why?' I said, what percentages of the market does he have? 'Sir, he has 100%.'" Trump continued, "I said, 'Who the hell is he? What's his name?' 'His name is Jensen Huang, Nvidia, ' I said, 'What the hell is Nvidia?' I've never heard of it before." "I figured we could go in and we could sort of break them up a little bit, get them a little competition, and I found it's not easy in that business." According to Tom's Hardware, Trump even claimed that he suggested putting together "the greatest minds" to work "hand in hand for a couple of years" to try and match Nvidia's success. He was then told it would take 10 years to catch up with Nvidia, and only if Huang ran the company "totally incompetently from now on." He concluded: "And then I got to know Jensen, and now I see why." The so-called AI Action Plan outlines how President Trump wants to secure US supremacy in the field of artificial intelligence.

In Recording, Trump Says He Didn't Even Know What Nvidia Was

While announcing his new so-called "AI Action Plan," which is primarily designed to eliminate regulatory hurdles for the industry, president Donald Trump made some baffling remarks. While standing next to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, whose chipmaker leads the S&P 500 Top 10 Index with a multi-trillion-dollar market cap, Trump admitted he had no idea what Nvidia was, as Tom's Hardware noticed. Due to the president's garbled communication style, it's unclear at what point he was unaware of what is currently the world's most valuable company. However, he did seem to suggest that he had previously wanted to break up the AI industry, for reasons that remained unexplained. "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," he said, while alluding to Huang. "I said, 'Who the hell is he? What's his name?' 'His name is Jensen Huang, Nvidia, ' I said, 'What the hell is Nvidia?' I've never heard of it before." The baffling remarks underline just how uninformed the president often is on key issues, leaving it up to his aides to explain them to him. Trump has also seemed baffled by his own family's cryptocurrency venture, proclaiming during a September livestream that "crypto is one of those things we have to do." During his speech this week, Trump wasn't subtle about his attempt to cozy up to Huang, despite previously not knowing who he or Nivida were. "America's unique advantage that no other country can possibly have is President Trump," he enthused. While the president said he once mulled breaking up Nvidia -- before he knew what it was, if we're decoding his remarks properly -- he revealed that his aides told him it would be "very hard." "I figured we could go in and we could sort of break them up a little bit, get them a little competition, and I found out it's not easy in that business," Trump said. It's no wonder the president is trying to keep Huang in his good graces. The company's stock price has rocketed over the last couple of years, catapulting it to the forefront of the AI race and the global business community. Huang also represents an alternative to xAI CEO Elon Musk, who's had an enormous falling out with Trump over the past two months -- but who's currently trying to raise $12 billion to lease an astronomical supply of Nvidia chips to bolster its AI efforts, in a timely demonstration of the strangely entangled world of AI. Google's parent company Alphabet is also forecasting that it's spending $85 billion in capital expenditures this year, a huge chunk of which is expected to go to Nvidia-powered data centers. They're all probably hoping that Trump doesn't change his mind again.

Trump says he wanted to break Nvidia up -- until he learned who Jensen Huang was

U.S. President Donald Trump says he considered breaking up AI darling Nvidia before learning more about the chipmaker and its CEO, Jensen Huang. "I said, 'Look, we'll break this guy up,' before I learned the facts of life," Trump said of Huang during a Wednesday speech about his new AI Action Plan. The U.S. president then appeared to recount an earlier conversation with an advisor about Nvidia's market share, its CEO, and potentially breaking up the company. "I said, who the hell is he? What's his name...What the hell is Nvidia? I've never heard of it before," the president said of the world's most valuable tech company. "I figured we could go in and we could sort of break them up a little bit, get them a little competition, and I found out it's not easy in that business... Then I got to know Jensen and now I see why," he said, inviting Huang, who was sitting in the audience, to stand up. The president made the comments during an AI summit hosted in Washington on Wednesday, but it's unclear when the original conversation about potentially breaking up the company took place. Representatives for Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment made by Fortune. Huang scored a win for Nvidia from the U.S. president earlier this month. Following a meeting between Huang and Trump at the White House, the Trump administration lifted restrictions on Nvidia's H20 AI chip exports to China, allowing the company to sell the chips in the lucrative market and reversing previous Trump administration restrictions. Per the New York Times, Huang engaged in months of lobbying for the policy change, meeting with Trump, testifying before Congress, and working closely with White House allies like AI adviser David Sacks. The CEO argued that restricting chip sales would hurt U.S. tech leadership by allowing Chinese rivals to dominate, and emphasized that Nvidia's chips were crucial for global AI standards. The tech giant has been on something of a winning streak of late. Earlier this month, the company made history when it became the first in the world to reach a market value of $4 trillion. The company's stock has soared over the past five years, with a nearly 18% gain registered year-to-date. Nvidia's supercharged growth is driven by the AI boom and the company's near-monopoly on AI chip manufacturing. The company's graphics processing units (GPUs) are used by all major tech companies to maintain and develop AI models. The company's dominance in AI hardware has made it a key player in global tech geopolitics, particularly as governments scrutinize the export of advanced semiconductor technology amid rising U.S.-China tensions.

In AI Action Plan speech, Trump reveals he considered breaking up Nvidia - SiliconANGLE

In AI Action Plan speech, Trump reveals he considered breaking up Nvidia U.S. President Donald Trump at one point weighed breaking up Nvidia Corp. to boost market competition. Trump revealed the deliberations during a late Wednesday speech in Washington, D.C. Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang was among the attendees. Trump's speech focused on the AI Action Plan, a newly released set of policy proposals that could benefit the graphics card maker. "I said, 'Look, we'll break this guy up,"' Trump recalled. "This before I learned the facts of life. I said, 'We'll break him up.'" Trump didn't specify why he considered breaking up Nvidia. Officials usually push to spin off parts of a company over antitrust concerns. During the Biden administration, the U.S. Justice Department reportedly launched an antitrust probe into Nvidia. Sources told Bloomberg at the time that officials were concerned about the chipmaker's sales practices. In particular, the Justice Depart reportedly studied whether Nvidia makes access to its graphics cards conditional on customers purchasing its other products or not buying hardware from rivals. It's believed the company's acquisition of Run:ai also drew Justice Department scrutiny. The startup built software that reduces the number of graphics cards needed to run artificial intelligence models. According to Politico, officials were concerned that Nvidia had bought the startup to "bury a technology that could curb its main profit engine." The Justice Department approved the deal after Nvidia agreed to open-source Run:ai's software. In his speech, Trump indicated that he changed his mind about breaking up Nvidia after officials told him doing so would be hard. "They said, 'No, sir. He is very hard.' I said, 'Why?' I said, 'What percentages of the market does he have?' They said, 'He has 100%.' I said, 'Who the hell is he? What's his name?' 'His name is Jensen Huang, Nvidia.'" 'I figured we could go in and we could sort of break him up a little bit, get him a little competition, and I found out it's not easy on that business," Trump added. "I said, 'Suppose we put the greatest minds together. They work hand-in-hand for a couple of years.' He said, 'No, it would take at least 10 years to catch him [Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang] if he ran Nvidia totally incompetently from now on.'" Nvidia already has significant competition in the AI accelerator market. Its rivals range from venture-backed startups to well-established chipmakers such as Advanced Micro Devices Inc. It's unclear which of Nvidia's business units Trump considered spinning off before he decided not to break up the company. The AI Action Plan, the new policy paper at the center of Trump's speech, proposes rule changes that could create more demand for Nvidia's chips. The document calls for officials to streamline the process of approving new AI data centers and power infrastructure. Additionally, the document recommends that federal agencies accelerate their adoption of "compute environments to support scalable and secure AI workloads."

Trump weighed Nvidia breakup but was told it would be 'hard'

Donald Trump considered breaking up Nvidia to boost AI chip competition. He learned it was a tough task. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met Trump at the White House. Nvidia can now sell H20 chips to China. Trump praised Huang and other tech leaders. Huang lauded Trump's AI approach. Nvidia's market value surpassed $4 trillion. US President Donald Trump said he considered attempting to break up Nvidia Corp. to increase competition in artificial intelligence chips before finding out "it's not easy in that business." "I said, 'Look, we'll break this guy up,' before I learned the facts here," Trump said Wednesday at an AI summit in Washington. Trump said he was told by aides that doing so was "very hard" and that the company held a substantial advantage over all competitors that would take years to overcome. "I figured we could go in and we could sort of break them up a little bit, get them a little competition, and I found out it's not easy in that business," Trump added. Nvidia declined to comment. Trump went on to praise Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang, who was in the audience for his event. Huang met earlier this month with the president at the White House, and last week the company announced it would be allowed to resume selling its H20 artificial intelligence chips to China as part of a recent trade truce with Beijing. The Trump administration had previously frozen the sale of those chips to China. "What a job you've done," Trump said. Throughout his address, the president name-checked and complimented Huang, along with other tech industry leaders, for their investments in the US. Earlier in the day, Huang used his session on stage to praise the president's approach to AI. "America's unique advantage that no other country can possibly have is President Trump," Huang said. Nvidia earlier this month became the first company ever to surpass $4 trillion in market capitalization, as it has profited heavily from the boom in demand for AI hardware to power large language models. The Justice Department in 2024 conducted an investigation seeking evidence of possible anticompetitive behavior by Nvidia. Trump at the event Wednesday unveiled his AI Action Plan, which, paired with a series of executive orders, is designed to aid the industry by reducing regulatory burdens.

Trump Wanted To Break Up Nvidia Before He 'Learned The Facts' -- He Later Found Out It's 'Not Easy' - NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

President Donald Trump acknowledged Wednesday that he briefly considered using antitrust power to split up Nvidia Corp. NVDA before aides warned the move would be "very hard." What Happened: "I said, 'Look, we'll break this guy up,' before I learned the facts here," Trump told an AI summit crowd near the Capitol, according to a Bloomberg report. He added that he had "figured we could go in and sort of break them up a little bit, get them a little competition, and I found out it's not easy in that business." "I said, 'suppose that we put the greatest minds together and they work hand-in-hand for a couple of years.' He said, 'no, it would take at least ten years to catch him if he ran Nvidia totally incompetently from now on.' So I said, 'all right, let's go on to the next one,'" Trump added. "And then I got to know Jensen, and now I see why." It is worth noting that the DOJ under the Biden administration had launched an antitrust probe into Nvidia Corp. in 2024. See Also: Palantir's Shyam Shankar Says AI Won't Kill Jobs -- It'll Give Blue-Collar Workers 'Superpowers' And Make Them 50X More Productive Trump then turned conciliatory, singling out chief executive Jensen Huang, seated in the audience, with a thumbs‑up, "What a job you've done." Why It Matters: The two met at the White House this month shortly before the administration cleared Nvidia to resume selling its H20 AI chips to China under a new trade truce. The remarks came as Trump rolled out an AI Action Plan, a package of executive orders and legislative proposals aimed at loosening regulations, expanding exports and accelerating data‑center construction to win the AI race against Beijing. The blueprint reverses several Biden‑era chip‑export curbs and follows a May proposal to scrap tiered licensing rules for advanced semiconductors. Price Action: NVDA stock is trading higher by 2.25% to $170.78 at market close on Wednesday. The stock was up 1.24% in after-market hours. Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings indicate that Nvidia demonstrates a strong profile for growth and momentum, but scores very poorly on value. The company boasts an exceptional Growth score of 98.70 and a strong Momentum score of 85.67. Check here to find out how the stock fares against its peers. Photo by gguy via Shutterstock Read Next: Google CEO Sundar Pichai Shrugs Off Headling-Grabbing Exits Amid Talent War Hype: 'We Are Doing Very Well' NVDANVIDIA Corp$172.893.51%Stock Score Locked: Want to See it? Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Reveal Full ScoreEdge RankingsMomentum83.45Growth98.68QualityN/AValue6.58Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

President Trump Wanted to Break NVIDIA -- Until He Realized Jensen Was The "AI Warlord" and Said It'd Take a Decade to Beat Them, Even With The Greatest Minds Together

President Trump apparently had plans to break up NVIDIA in order to level the competition in the AI space, but his intentions changed once he got to know about Jensen Huang. NVIDIA is indeed America's top AI firm, and there's no other alternative to the company's hardware and software tech stack. But interestingly, when President Trump took over the White House, he didn't know about Team Green at all, and neither did CEO Jensen Huang. Since NVIDIA was booming in the AI race alone, President Trump thought it would be a good idea to break the company's dominance, by creating a new firm with the "greatest" minds out there. Turns out, he didn't know who Jensen was at that time, and when he did learn about the NVIDIA CEO, he backed out. I said, 'Look, we'll break this guy up,' before I learned the facts here. I figured we could go in and we could sort of break them up a little bit, get them a little competition, and I found out it's not easy in that business. When the US President says that NVIDIA cannot be competed with, the world shouldn't ignore him at all. The pace at which NVIDIA is progressing with the AI hype is way beyond something "extraordinary." More importantly, the company has evolved to be the "driver" of the AI bandwagon, creating America's dominance in the world of global AI. President Trump praised Jensen Huang in multiple occasions at the AI Summit that was held yesterday, and complemented the company's position in cementing America's leadership with AI. When you look at NVIDIA right now, especially its $4 trillion valuation, the seeds of success were sown years earlier by Jensen himself, when he first announced CUDA and how he projects the AI frenzy to evolve. The way Jensen has managed to put himself ahead of the industry is one of the main reasons why NVIDIA is successful right now, and to maintain the lead, NVIDIA is going to lengths that no other tech firm has ever managed to achieve, whether it is an aggressive product cycle or consistent development of the software stack. NVIDIA's future under President Trump is looking pretty bright. As Jensen said at the event, Trump is America's unique factor, probably what sets the country apart from all others. It would be interesting to see how Team Green moves under the current government.

Jensen Huang Saw GPU Future While Others Chased CPUs -- Trump AI Czar David Sacks Rejects Calls To Break Up Nvidia, Backs 'Build Baby Build' Strategy - NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks defended Nvidia Corp. NVDA against breakup calls during an interview, citing the company's visionary leadership and competitive market dynamics as President Donald Trump outlined his "build baby build" strategy for AI dominance. What Happened: Sacks rejected suggestions that Nvidia's market dominance warrants antitrust action, emphasizing that CEO Jensen Huang's 30-year GPU vision created the company's current advantage. "When everyone else was focused on CPUs, he had this vision around GPUs," Sacks told CNBC. "In America, we don't punish winning, we don't punish success that comes from being visionary." The comments follow Trump's July admission that he initially considered breaking up Nvidia before learning market realities. "I said, 'Look, we'll break this guy up,' before I learned the facts," Trump told an AI summit audience. He later acknowledged that catching Nvidia would take "at least ten years" even if the company ran "totally incompetently." Sacks outlined America's competitive position against China across the AI technology stack. While Chinese models like DeepSeek and Qwen trail U.S. capabilities by only months, Nvidia maintains a "couple of years" lead over China's Huawei in chip design. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. holds an even larger advantage over China's SMIC in manufacturing. Trump's "build baby build" initiative targets energy infrastructure as critical for AI leadership. The president signed executive orders to accelerate AI data center construction and streamline energy development. "If you want to have AI dominance, you've got to have energy dominance," Sacks explained, noting that new AI infrastructure requires substantial electricity capacity. See Also: Tesla Stock Faces 'Critical Milestone' Ahead: Here's What Analysts Are Flagging As Next Key Catalyst Why It Matters: The administration also prioritized AI exports to establish American technology standards globally. "We want the whole world using the American tech stack," Sacks said. "If we don't provide that standard, Huawei surely will." Needham analyst N. Quinn Bolton raised Nvidia's price target to $200 from $160, projecting $3 billion quarterly H20 chip sales to China following resumed export approvals. Bolton forecasts revenue reaching $315 billion by fiscal 2028, including $20 billion from Chinese data center GPU sales. Nvidia shares gained 25.62% year-to-date, outperforming the Nasdaq Composite's 9.22% advance as investors bet on continued AI infrastructure expansion. Read Next: Trump's Golden Dome Shield Advances As L3Harris Says It's Ready To Deploy 'A Full Constellation' of 40 To 45 Proven Hypersonic Missile Tracking Satellites Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo courtesy: Shutterstock NVDANVIDIA Corp$173.46-0.16%Stock Score Locked: Want to See it? Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Reveal Full ScoreEdge RankingsMomentum86.89Growth98.70QualityN/AValue6.42Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs