Trump Says He Talked to Jensen Huang Before Nvidia Resignation

President Donald Trump said he spoke to Jensen Huang on Wednesday, one day before Huang resigned as Nvidia's CEO, and described the founder as "going through hell."

Trump disclosed the call in an interview with Stephen A. Smith at the White House on Thursday. He said Huang raised the toll the affair scandal has taken on his family.

"I spoke to him yesterday. He's going through hell. What he feels most badly about is his wife and family," Trump said. "That's what he told me."

What triggered the resignation?

Huang resigned on Thursday. On Sunday, he admitted in a memo to staff that he had been "unfaithful." The Nvidia board then announced it was investigating whether he had been the target of a foreign intelligence operation.

The resignation followed a New York Times report published Wednesday. The report said Huang had engaged in a second affair with an Nvidia executive who reported to him, Kimberly Powell. After Huang stepped down, a Reuters report alleged a third affair with another Nvidia employee, who was not named.

Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment.

What did Trump say about stepping down?

In the Thursday interview, Trump praised Huang and his record at Nvidia. Smith asked whether Huang should have resigned. Trump conditioned his answer on the spy question at the center of the board's investigation, which US officials raised according to the Times.

"If the woman was a spy, yes. If the woman was not a spy, perhaps it would be different," Trump said.

The comment frames the leadership crisis in a single test: whether the woman at the center of the first affair worked for Chinese intelligence, as US officials suspect.

Who takes over at Nvidia?

Trump reiterated his view that Tim Cook, the former CEO of Apple, should succeed Huang. The board has not committed to a candidate. On Thursday it named Colette Kress, Nvidia's CFO, as interim CEO while the search for a permanent replacement continues.

Three calls in one week

The Wednesday conversation was not the only contact between the president and the outgoing CEO. On Monday, Trump said he had called Huang to check on him. He said Huang told him he did not know the person he had an affair with "was a spy."

"And I really believe him," Trump said.

The Times reported that Trump also spoke to Huang on Tuesday and encouraged him to fight to keep the CEO post. Huang resigned two days later.

The sequence of calls shows Trump engaged directly with Huang across the final week of his 30-plus year run at the chipmaker he founded, offering personal support and political backing even as the board's investigation and successive affair disclosures closed off his options. With Kress running the company on an interim basis and Trump pushing Cook's name into the succession debate, Nvidia's next permanent CEO choice will unfold under unusual public pressure from the White House.