US President Trump personally urged Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to fight to keep his job during a phone call on Tuesday, shortly before Huang stepped down amid a growing spying scandal.
Trump has been warned at least twice that US intelligence agencies believe Alice Huang, a Chinese businesswoman with whom Jensen Huang reported, was recruited by China's Ministry of State Security, but he took no action.
Trump's support was also driven by Nvidia's importance to the US economy, financial markets and his desire to maintain US leadership in artificial intelligence, fearing that Huang's departure could cause a decline in the company he saw as central to his data center boom.