With Jensen Huang officially out as president and CEO of Nvidia, rumors are swirling over who will take his place at the helm of one of the world’s biggest tech companies. Could it be interim CEO Colette Kress, who’s spent more than a decade as Nvidia’s executive vice president and CFO? Or maybe the company’s cofounder Chris Malachowsky, now a senior vice president of engineering and operations?
President Donald Trump has a different idea. His left-field pick: former Apple CEO Tim Cook. In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced his preference for Huang’s successor.
“NOW THAT Nvidia CEO JENSEN HUANG, who has done a fantastic job, has resigned, there is only one man to take his place – TIM COOK of Apple,” Trump wrote. “A Legend replaces a Legend!”
Beyond Trump’s dubious claim that Huang did “a fantastic job” as CEO—having an affair with an alleged Chinese spy might disqualify him from that distinction—Cook is far from an obvious pick to step into the role.
It was just months ago in September that Cook stepped away from being Apple’s CEO and became its executive chairman. In a company meeting announcing the decision, Cook said his stepdown had to come at a time when “business had to be doing great,” when the “product road map to be incredible,” and when his replacement, former senior vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus, was “ready for the role.” With all those conditions met, “now was the time,” Cook said.
Why, then, would Trump want Cook to take on another CEO mantle? Notably, the two have gotten close during Trump’s second term as president.
Trump and Cook, sitting in a tree
Trump and Cook weren’t always buddies. During Trump’s first term as president, he infamously referred to Cook as “Tim Apple,” seemingly forgetting his name.
But since Trump took back the office in 2025, Cook has frequently been spotted at Trump’s side, from attending a White House dinner for tech CEOs last September to watching an early screening of First Lady Melania Trump’s documentary in early 2026.
For his part, Cook insists that he’s not politically aligned with Trump, instead abstaining from politics entirely.
“What I do is I interact on policy, not politics. I’m not a political person on either side. I’m not political,” Cook said in an interview for Good Morning America earlier this year. “I’m kind of straight down the middle. And I focus on policy, so I’m very pleased that the president and the administration is accessible to talk about policy,” he added.
That purported focus on policy aligns with Cook’s intentions for his role as Apple’s executive chairman, which include overseeing the company’s global relations. “This is an area where we’ve built relationships over multiple years and a decade-plus, and I think I can help with that,” Cook said when announcing his stepdown.
