Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang publicly backed Donald Trump’s position that the development of artificial intelligence must not be slowed down. The U.S. president called Huang right in the middle of his appearance at the All-In conference in Los Angeles, and the conversation was put on speakerphone for the audience.

The conversation was prompted by a debate over Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s proposal to reduce the pace of development of advanced AI models. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk had previously agreed with that position. Huang, by contrast, believes the industry should not be halted or significantly slowed.

Trump calls concerns about AI a “hoax”

During his speech, Huang received a call from Trump and decided not to postpone the conversation. The president joked that the head of Nvidia can design the world’s most advanced computer chips but cannot figure out how to use speakerphone on his phone.

The discussion then shifted to the pace of AI development. Trump said that supporters of slowing it down are effectively playing into the hands of those who want to undermine the American technology sector. As possible beneficiaries, he named political opponents and China, and he called the concerns surrounding AI development a “hoax.”

“You’re right. We won’t let that happen,” Huang replied. The audience greeted his words with applause.

Trump also said that the United States must continue to lead in AI development. At the same time, he acknowledged the need to act carefully: in his words, the industry should not be stopped, but it should be developed “wisely and cautiously.”

Amodei urges a slower pace, Altman supports him

The debate over slowing AI began with Dario Amodei’s position, as he urged the industry to “reduce the pace at which we are improving AI capabilities.” The Anthropic CEO believes advanced models are developing too quickly and that risks may grow faster than companies can put the necessary safety measures in place.

Sam Altman also publicly agreed with Amodei. At the same time, the OpenAI chief is not calling for AI development to stop: the idea is not to move faster than monitoring and safety systems allow.

Huang took the opposite position. For Nvidia, the issue is especially important from a commercial standpoint: the company earns a huge share of its revenue from supplying accelerators and other hardware to AI developers. The more actively companies build data centers and expand computing capacity, the higher the demand for Nvidia’s products.

The dispute is not only about models, but also about data centers

Against the backdrop of the debate over AI scenarios, a more practical question also arises — how quickly infrastructure for training and running models can be expanded.

Trump and his supporters argue that resistance to the construction of new data centers may be part of a campaign aimed at weakening the American AI industry and giving China an advantage.

However, public dissatisfaction also has very specific causes. According to Gallup data cited by TechCrunch, about seven in ten Americans oppose the construction of data centers near where they live. More than half of respondents link their views to the impact such facilities have on the environment and natural resources. Another roughly 20% are concerned about rising living costs and the possible effect of data centers on quality of life.

That is why the dispute over the pace of AI development goes far beyond the question of how quickly neural networks should become more powerful. For the industry to continue growing, new data centers, electricity, cooling systems, and vast amounts of computing equipment are needed — and all of this is running into local constraints and resistance.

Nvidia has a stake in keeping the AI boom going

Huang has not yet explained in detail how his position differs from the views of the heads of OpenAI and Anthropic. However, Nvidia’s economic motivation is obvious: the company’s business directly depends on demand for computing power for artificial intelligence.

According to TechCrunch, Nvidia shares have risen by about 33% over the past year, although they dipped slightly after Huang’s appearance and the subsequent events.

Therefore, the Nvidia chief’s words can be seen not only as the opinion of one of the most influential executives in the technology sector, but also as the stance of a person whose company directly benefits from the continuation of the current race for more powerful AI.

At the same time, during the conversation with Trump, Huang himself effectively summed up his position in the simplest possible terms: the industry must continue to develop, even if that needs to be done cautiously. In the coming years, one of the main disputes in the American AI industry will revolve around exactly this — how fast it is possible to move forward without running into consequences that prove too costly.