Jensen Huang Used to Delegate Politics—Until Trump’s Return
The Nvidia CEO is relying on Mar-a-Lago visits and a budding relationship with President Donald Trump to reopen a path to China, which demands his attention, too.
Since the start of this year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has been thrust into an unexpected new role—chief lobbyist for his company—forcing him to carry its hopes, suggestions and pleas directly to President Donald Trump.
Many of Huang’s conversations with Trump have happened at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s residence and private club in south Florida, and Huang has made far more visits there than have been publicly reported, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Indeed, these tête-à-têtes in Palm Beach have become frequent enough for one Nvidia executive to remark on Huang’s absence from the company’s Santa Clara, Calif., headquarters. “We see a lot less of Jensen,” the executive said. “He’s traveling to Florida a lot.”
Huang’s direct approach to dealing with Trump is a marked break from the past, when Huang generally left it to his lieutenants—and his lieutenants’ lieutenants—to handle the company’s relationships with the U.S. government. Generally, they engaged in traditional lobbying efforts, speaking regularly to bureaucrats and policymakers in an effort to shape public policy that favored Nvidia.