Trump Urged Jensen Huang to Fight for His Nvidia Job Before He Resigned

The account places the White House closer to a leadership crisis that has turned into a national security dispute. Huang stepped down after reports of extramarital affairs, including one with a woman suspected of spying for China. The Times has previously reported that Trump was told several times that Huang was close to the suspected spy, and that he still allowed Nvidia to sell H200 chips to China, a decision taken at the end of last year. Democrats are now calling for investigations into what the president knew, while lawmakers from both parties want Congress to examine Huang's relationship and tighten Chinese access to advanced chips.

Trump has spoken openly about the call. In an interview with sports commentator Stephen A. Smith on Thursday, he said he had called Huang on Wednesday and described the situation as "sad". "He's going through hell," Trump said. "What he feels most badly about is his wife and family."

Asked whether Huang should have stepped down, Trump said the answer turned on the woman's role. "The big thing is, was the woman a spy? And I don't know if that's been determined yet," he said. "If the woman was a spy, yes." None of the reports included a White House response to the Times account.

Trump has also weighed in on who should run the company next. "There is only one man to take his place - TIM COOK of Apple," he wrote on Truth Social. Cook has stepped down as Apple's chief executive but remains executive chairman, and he has not said publicly whether he would consider the job.

Nvidia's board has called speculation about a successor premature, saying it has not hired a search firm or formally engaged candidates, after a report that it had approached Arm chief executive Rene Haas. Colette Kress, the chief financial officer, is running the company on an interim basis.

Investors have marked the shares down sharply. Nvidia's stock has fallen more than 13% over the past five trading days, and it was down about 3% in Friday afternoon trading. HSBC downgraded the stock to hold from buy and cut its price target to $170 from $365.

Some market watchers are still floating a return. Fundstrat's Tom Lee wrote on X that "There were many forces that potentially would like to see Jensen Huang removed as CEO of Nvidia," listing China hawks, frontier AI labs, Nvidia's competitors, "anti-AI people" and short sellers, without offering evidence. "Would be a powerful (and shocking) redemption story if he could be reinstated as CEO," he added.

Nvidia reports quarterly results on Tuesday, the first under interim leadership, and analysts are expected to press Kress on whether the scandal and tighter export scrutiny will affect demand from Chinese and other customers.