As Huang spoke to analysts and investors on the company’s earnings call, the CEO demonstrated an impressive feat of gymnastics, walking a fine line to critique the Trump policy that left a massive hole on his company’s income statement while being careful not to provoke the president.
Nvidia said the new rule will cause it to forfeit $10.5 billion in revenue in the first half of this year. But while his words were pointed, Huang was careful not to call out President Trump by name in his critique, referring only to U.S. policy.
Later in the call, Huang turned to another piece of government regulation: the so-called AI Diffusion Rule, passed in the last days of the Biden administration to restrict how advanced AI technology and equipment is shared with foreign countries.
The Trump administration revoked the rule in January, and in this case, Huang deemed it worthy of crediting the president by name. “It was really terrific to see that the AI Diffusion rule was rescinded,” Huang said. “President Trump wants America to win. He also realizes that we’re not the only country in the race.”
The comments were all the more remarkable since they essentially praised Trump for doing exactly what Huang had moment earlier faulted Trump’s administration for not doing. “He wants the United States to win and recognizes that we have to get the American stack out to the world, and get the world to build on the American stack instead of alternatives,” Huang said.
The paradox did not seem to bother investors, who cheered Nvidia’s results and sent shares of the stock up roughly 5% in after hours trading on Wednesday.
