After Huang's resignation, Trump floats Tim Cook to run Nvidia

President Donald Trump on Thursday floated former Apple CEO Tim Cook as the next chief executive of Nvidia, in the wake of Jensen Huang's resignation from the role, a departure TechCrunch describes as industry-shaking. In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that “only one man” could take Huang's place: Tim Cook of Apple. “A Legend replaces a Legend!” he added.

The suggestion arrives at a delicate moment for the chipmaker. Nvidia sits at the center of the global AI compute supply chain, so whoever runs it shapes data-center GPU roadmaps, the allocation of constrained capacity, and the continuity of the software ecosystem partners build on.

Trump's post, however, describes no appointment process. CEO succession at a public company is decided by its board, and a presidential statement carries no formal weight in that decision. TechCrunch notes that it is anyone's guess whether Trump is endorsing the idea or simply “blasting off an idea that hopped into his mind.”

Cook's own situation makes the proposal less far-fetched than it first sounds. He stepped down as Apple's CEO on September 1, 2026, after 15 years running the company; John Ternus took over as CEO while Cook became Executive Chairman of Apple's board, a role in which he continues to engage with global policymakers and manage international relationships, including Apple's relations with China.

Trump is not the first to raise Cook's name either. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Senior Associate Dean for Leadership Studies at Yale School of Management, wrote an op-ed in Time on Wednesday arguing that Cook should be among the potential candidates, citing his “unparalleled track record of succeeding a bigger-than-life founder” — a reference to Cook following Steve Jobs in 2011.

That is also why the suggestion traveled quickly through tech circles: Cook is one of very few executives who has run a hardware supply chain at global scale, handled government relationships for years, and already completed a founder succession once.

What to watch next is the Nvidia board, and whether the company lays out an interim division of duties during any transition. With AI infrastructure spending still at elevated levels, any leadership uncertainty at the company at the center of that build-out gets read as a market signal.

TechCrunch closes with a joke: “Tim Nvidia” doesn't quite have the same ring as “Tim Apple.” But the post has already turned a corporate personnel change into a public argument about who holds power in the AI industry.