Trump called AI fears a hoax on Jensen Huang's speakerphone

The US president answered the AI slowdown debate from a phone held up on a conference stage. “I’m telling you, it’s all a hoax,” Donald Trump told the audience.

The call

On September 14, 2026, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was on stage at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles when he took a call from Trump and put him on speakerphone. Trump called data centers “the oil of the next 20, 25 years,” adding that people “have to be a little careful.”

After Trump said critics could be helping China and “we’re not going to let that happen,” Huang replied: “You’re right. We’re not going to let that happen, sir.”

The posts

The same day, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT.” He also went after Anthropic’s CEO by name: “Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a ‘perfect little angel.’”

The posts came two days after Dario Amodei published his essay “We Must Pace the Frontier,” which Sam Altman and Elon Musk publicly backed.

Where this leaves the debate

Amodei, Altman and Musk say frontier AI should slow down. The president’s position, repeated in a string of posts on Monday, is that the only guardrail AI needs is a strong and smart president. Jensen Huang, whose company’s graphics processors fill the data centers Trump praised, told him on stage: “You’re right.”

That split could shape how, and whether, frontier AI gets regulated in the US. Voluntary pacing by the labs remains possible without Washington. Trump said he sees no need for additional AI regulation, and David Sacks said the companies can “go ahead and pace the frontier” themselves.