Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has added his identify to the listing of tech chiefs desirous to pledge fealty to incoming US president Donald Trump, saying in an interview with Bloomberg Television that he’d be “delighted” to go to Mar-a-Lago to congratulate Trump on his election victory—he simply hasn’t been invited but.
“I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do the whole lot we will to assist this administration succeed,” Huang mentioned. He additionally had some flattering phrases for Elon Musk, who performed a pivotal function in Trump’s victory and can proceed to take action in his administration, saying the proprietor of X, Tesla, and SpaceX is “very optimistic” about the way forward for AI and is “engaged on a number of the most necessary AI areas.”
Huang is the most recent big-tech CEO to mark his obeisance to the incoming regime, following Apple CEO Tim Cook, OpenAI chief Sam Altman, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and most just lately, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, who introduced yesterday that Facebook and Instagram will likely be eliminating fact-checkers and adopting an X-inspired “Community Notes” system as a substitute.
It’s common for the heads of main firms to sometimes remind politicians who butters their bread as a way to preserve the gears turning easily. What makes this rush to kiss the ring outstanding is its pace and totality: Meta, Amazon, Cook, and Altman have all made million-dollar donations to Trump’s inauguration fund.
By method of comparability, a Newsweek report says Apple donated $43,200 to the 2021 inauguration of present US president Joe Biden, whereas Amazon donated $276,000. Meta and Open AI didn’t donate in any respect. Google and Microsoft, who donated $337,500 and $500,000 respectively to Biden’s inauguration fund, haven’t but confirmed any donations to Trump’s.
It additionally stands in sharp distinction to the tech business’s relationship with Trump simply 4 years in the past, which got here to a head when he tried to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election. Twitter, now referred to as X, completely suspended Trump’s account after the January 6 rebellion “because of the threat of additional incitement of violence,” whereas Facebook imposed an “indefinite” ban for a similar purpose. Facebook modified that to a two-year ban a number of months later, whereas Elon Musk restored Trump’s Twitter account in 2022, not lengthy after taking possession of the corporate. Streaming platform Twitch additionally banned Trump in January 2021; that ban was lifted in July 2024 beneath the rationale that “there’s worth in listening to from Presidential nominees instantly.”
As a lot as these loyalty theatrics are about boosting enterprise—probably a useless effort, given Trump’s mercurial disposition and seemingly restricted understanding of commerce—they’re additionally undoubtedly an effort to easily keep out of his crosshairs. As reported by NPR, Trump has been overt about his need to pursue and punish his perceived enemies, starting from Democratic politicians and “your complete Biden crime household” to particular person journalists and even ballot employees. That does not make their performances any much less embarrassing or contemptible, nevertheless it does relatively harshly illuminate the realities of “doing enterprise” on this world we have constructed.
Nvidia faces some distinctive challenges on that entrance: Its chips are on the forefront of the trouble to make AI occur, and that has it caught between the proverbial rock and a tough place, because the governments of the US and China wrestle for a technological edge. But Huang’s lack of an invitation to Mar-a-Lago might come all the way down to one thing far easier than geopolitical machinations: Unlike Meta, Amazon, and the remaining, Nvidia hasn’t but kicked any money into Trump’s inauguration fund.
