From "Who The Hell Is He" To Defending Sex Scandal: Trump On Jensen Huang

"Who the hell is he? What's his name? What the hell is Nvidia? I've never heard of it before."

That was US President Donald Trump just last year talking about Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, the company powering much of the world's AI boom, and the man who finds himself caught in the middle of a sex scandal storm that has rocked the AI industry.

What's fascinating is how much that relationship changed.

Trump had once considered breaking Nvidia up because of its near-total dominance in AI chips.

Watch our quick take:

But his advisers told him it would take competitors at least a decade to catch up.

And then, as Trump himself put it: "I got to know Jensen, and now I see why."

The two have since become remarkably close. Huang famously took a call from Trump during a live event and put him on speaker even after the President asked him to do so. Trump called Huang live on stage during a panel discussion at the All-In Summit in September, where - he dismissed AI safety concerns and regulations as a "hoax" and a "sick conspiracy," arguing that the United States must lead in AI innovation against global competitors like China

Huang has praised Trump publicly, joined him on trips abroad, dined with King Charles alongside him, and even boarded Air Force One for the China visit in May.

Trump, meanwhile, has backed Nvidia on crucial chip-export decisions and last month awarded Huang the National Medal of Science, which is the United States' highest scientific honour.

But here's where things get rather interesting.

US intelligence had reportedly warned Trump about the suspected link between Jensen Huang and Alice Huang (also known as Huang Le), the alleged Chinese spy - roughly a year ago. The President seemingly chose not to act.

Trump reportedly opted not to take action at the time because he was concerned about disrupting Nvidia's massive chip sales-which are vital to the US  economy and AI infrastructure, as well as avoiding further complications in the U.S.-China trade relations. 

Jensen Huang was also not given a standard defensive briefing by US officials regarding the foreign intelligence threat

In May, just before Huang joined Trump's delegation to China, Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly put in a reminder about the intel on the Nvidia CEO's link to Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman and executive at Megaspeed whom US intelligence determined was gathering information for Beijing. 

Trump insisted Huang join the trip. Initially Jensen Huang was not on the delegation list but after Trump's insistence he was brought on board.

Now, with Nvidia's CEO at the centre of an espionage investigation, Trump is still standing by him. The company is running its own internal investigation on the matter, while Huang stays on as CEO. The FBI too is looking into it, Trump said.

However, amidst the upheaval Trump has called Huang an "honourable guy", an "amazing guy", and said he believes him when he says he had no idea the woman was a spy.

"I think he's an honorable guy, I think he probably has an excuse for it. You have to hear it. He's done an amazing job for the country," Trump said.

So how did a man Trump once barely knew become one of his closest allies in Silicon Valley?

Perhaps the answer lies in just how important Nvidia has become to America's AI ambitions.

Trump has famously repeated, "Whoever wins AI, wins (the world)." He's said that it's only the US and China and there's nobody else in the race and the US is about a year ahead in frontier AI development. If the US were to slow down in any way, China will race ahead which cannot be allowed under any circumstances.