Name: Jensen Huang (Net Worth: $169.9 Billion, Forbes, 7/31/26)
Title: Co-Founder, CEO, and President, Nvidia
Industry Affiliation
- The graphics processing units that Nvidia produces are central to the current AI boom, and data center demand for processors pushed Nvidia’s market capitalization above $5 trillion, the first company to surpass that mark.
- In partnership with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Nvidia pledged to invest $500 billion over four years to build AI servers in America, aligning itself with the Trump administration’s push to bring back domestic manufacturing.
- Huang has downplayed fears about an AI bubble, telling Nvidia shareholders, “There’s been a lot of talk about an AI bubble. From our vantage point we see something very different.”
- The bubble is partially inflating through circular financing in the AI industry that Nvidia participates in. For example, Nvidia invested $100 billion in OpenAI to finance data centers. OpenAI then buys Nvidia chips for that data center’s computing. Nvidia is “essentially subsidizing one of its biggest customers,” artificially inflating actual demand for AI and the valuation of AI companies.
Trump Admin Ties
- Since Trump’s 2024 presidential win, Huang has changed his stance on keeping himself away from Washington, aligning himself and Nvidia with the Trump administration’s AI policies. Huang told the audience at Nvidia’s 2025 Global Tech Conference in D.C., “I come with only one purpose. To inform and to be in service of the president as he thinks about how to make America great.”
- Huang has maintained a close orbit around Trump. Nvidia contributed to Trump’s inaugural fund, earning Huang a prime spot at the ceremony. Huang also paid $1 million to have dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, accompanied the president on official state visits to the Middle East and UK, and donated to Trump’s $300 million White House ballroom project.
- Huang’s budding relationship with Trump has paid off. In May 2025, Trump announced that the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia would be allowed to buy chips from Nvidia, reversing a Biden-era rule limiting AI chip exports under national security concerns.
- Nvidia agreed to give the U.S. Treasury 25% of its revenues from selling H200 AI chips in China in exchange for obtaining an export license.
- Nvidia started manufacturing its Blackwell AI chips in Arizona, supporting Trump’s vision to revive domestic manufacturing.
- Nvidia will partner with Oracle to build the Department of Energy’s largest AI supercomputer using 100,000 Blackwell GPUs.
- Oracle founder Larry Ellison is a long-time Trump donor and ally and is a member of Trump’s Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).
- Oracle founder Larry Ellison is a long-time Trump donor and ally and is a member of Trump’s Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).
- Huang was selected to sit on Trump’s Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), where he can personally lobby Trump on AI policy.
- On December 3, 2025, Huang had urged Congress to oppose legislation that would allow states to regulate AI. Later that week, Trump issued an executive order protecting AI companies from “onerous and excessive” state laws and authorizing the creation of the AI Litigation Task Force to challenge state AI laws.
Government Affairs
- Nvidia spent $4.97 million in 2025 directly lobbying the federal government, and then spent another $1.29 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2026.
- Nvidia lobbied Congress and federal agencies on issues related to artificial intelligence, semiconductor design and fabrication, semiconductor trade policy, and energy policy.
- Nvidia is a member of several trade associations that have lobbied the federal government.
- The Semiconductor Industry Association spent $1.82 million in 2025 and $450,000 in the first quarter of 2026 lobbying the federal government on issues related to the semiconductor industry and the implementation of the CHIPS and Science Act.
- The Information Technology Innovation Council spent $2.88 million in 2025 and $720,000 in the first quarter of 2026 lobbying the federal government on issues related to artificial intelligence, AI energy use, and data centers.
- TechNet spent $1.97 million in 2025 and $370,000 in the first quarter of 2026 lobbying the federal government on issues related to artificial intelligence and energy permitting reform.
State Level Action
- On its website, TechNet boasts that its 50-state program is “unparalleled in size and experience among tech industry associations. In 2025, our state team engaged on 808 bills across 50 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico, with our policy position prevailing 87 percent of the time.”
- TechNet published explicit state policy recommendations for artificial intelligence and energy policy to support the growth of emerging technologies.
- TechNet has opposed:
- A Wisconsin chatbot safety bill
- A Nebraska bill addressing AI-generated child sex abuse material
- Restrictions on data centers in Colorado and New Jersey
- A Rhode Island bill establishing the right to sue AI companies for harms associated with the technology
- Multiple state bills creating tougher social media and privacy standards
- The Information Technology Innovation Council (ITI) employs dedicated state advocacy and policy teams to “provide U.S. policymakers and member companies with concise, high-level legislative expertise to ensure proposed legislation and regulations enable the technology sector to grow and successfully innovate.”
- ITI engages state governments on artificial intelligence and energy policy.
Image Credit: “Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang” by Maurizio Pesce, CC BY 2.0
For more check out AI Villains and The Trump Administration