The CEO Closest to Trump Was Jensen Huang
As former NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang abruptly stepped down on the 12th (local time), he is drawing attention as the figure who was closest to U.S. President Donald Trump in Silicon Valley. U.S. network CNN reported on the 12th (local time) that "almost no one in Silicon Valley is closer to President Trump than former CEO Huang."
According to CNN, Huang was a frequent visitor to the White House, flew aboard Air Force One, and was a regular at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. At the state banquet last month on the 24th for Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the United States, Huang was seated at the same table as President Trump and the First Lady.
Huang was known to be in regular phone contact with President Trump. CNN reported that people in meetings witnessed President Trump's phone screen displaying Huang's name. President Trump even called him directly while Huang was on stage at a conference.
The relationship between the two rapidly deepened into a mutually transactional one during President Trump's second term. Huang attended a $1 million (about 1.36 billion won) dinner held at Mar-a-Lago. NVIDIA contributed millions of dollars to President Trump's inauguration and paid $25 million toward the construction of the White House ballroom, becoming one of its largest donors.
That relationship paid dividends for NVIDIA. A prime example is the Trump administration's withdrawal of its plan to restrict exports to China of NVIDIA's high-performance semiconductors, including the H200. President Trump ensured Huang's attendance at meetings on AI and other topics, and during his May trip to China for a summit with President Xi Jinping, he took Huang aboard Air Force One from the stopover in Alaska. Last month, he awarded Huang the National Medal of Science.
However, controversy arose over reports that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had briefed President Trump that Huang was in an affair with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy, yet the president approved his inclusion on the trip to China. Their relationship now comes with both tangible benefits to NVIDIA, such as the withdrawal of export restrictions and the award of the National Medal of Science, and controversy over the toleration of intelligence concerns. With Huang's abrupt resignation, attention is focused on how the influence of this close bond with the Trump administration might change.
