Donald Trump to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at Saudi Summit: I see my friend Jensen is here, Apple CEO Tim Cook isn’t

Donald Trump praised Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during a US-Saudi Investment Forum on Tuesday, May 13. Speaking at the forum, Trump said “I see my friend is here, Jensen. (Apple CEO]) Tim Cook isn’t here, but you are”. Highlighting the company’s planned $500 billion investment in the US artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, he further added “What a job you’ve done. He’s got 99% of the chip market. That’s not easy to beat.”The praise comes after Nvidia announced in April that it would work with manufacturers such as Foxconn, Wistron, TSMC, Amkor, and SPIL to set up production facilities in Arizona and Texas. The company then said that it is planning to build AI servers worth as much as $500 billion in the US over the next four years. TSMC’s Phoenix plant has already started producing Nvidia’s Blackwell chips.“Thank you for the investment. We are proud to have you in our country,” Trump said at the Saudi summit. Earlier this week, Huang announced that the company will sell over 18,000 of its latest artificial intelligence (AI) chips to Saudi Arabian firm Humain. The announcement – made during the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in Riyadh – is part of a White House-led visit to the region. As announced by Huang, the chips will be used in data centers with a total capacity of 500 megawatts. Nvidia said the chips to be deployed first will be the GB300 Blackwell chips, designed for training and deploying advanced AI systems.Meanwhile, Huang’s net worth rose to about $120 billion on Tuesday (May 13), up from $80 billion a year ago, driven by strong demand for Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips. Nvidia reached a market value of $3 trillion after it announced plans to sell hundreds of thousands of AI chips to Saudi Arabia, including a large number to an AI startup backed by the country’s sovereign wealth fund. The deal highlights continued high demand for Nvidia’s top-tier processors.