(VIDEO) Jensen Huang's Phone of Choice for Trump's Surprise Call? A Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, Photos Confirm"

LOS ANGELES — When Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang's onstage interview at the All-In Summit was interrupted Monday by a surprise phone call from President Donald Trump, cameras and phones in the audience captured more than just the conversation. They also caught the device Huang pulled from his pocket to take the call: Samsung's newly released Galaxy Z Fold 8.

Video and photos from the Los Angeles event show Huang, dressed in his now-familiar alligator leather jacket, answering the call and then unfolding the phone to switch it to speakerphone so the crowd of thousands could hear President Trump directly. Multiple outlets that reviewed footage of the moment, including South Korea's Seoul Economic Daily and technology site Sammy Fans, confirmed the device as the Galaxy Z Fold 8, which Samsung unveiled in July. Reports noted that the caller ID displayed on the phone's screen during the call clearly read "President Trump."

The identification wasn't immediate across all outlets. TechCrunch initially reported that Huang had been using an unreleased Apple foldable device before issuing a correction. "An earlier version of this piece identified the phone Jensen Huang used to take President Trump's call as Apple's iPhone Duo," the outlet wrote in its updated story. "That was incorrect — the device appears to be a Samsung Galaxy Fold 8. The piece has been updated to remove references to the iPhone Duo and the conclusions that were based on that error." Multiple other outlets, including BigGo Finance and Sammy Fans, independently confirmed the same conclusion, aligning with the Seoul Economic Daily's reporting that cited industry sources.

This was not the first time Huang has been spotted publicly using a Samsung foldable device. He previously carried a Galaxy Z Fold 7 in May, a phone reportedly gifted to him by Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong. That earlier device also made a public appearance when Huang was photographed holding it in the VIP parking lot at Pohang Gyeongju Airport in South Korea after arriving on his private jet to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit last year. The recurring appearances of Samsung's flagship foldables in Huang's hands have fueled speculation about whether the newer Galaxy Z Fold 8 was similarly provided by Lee, though the exact circumstances behind Huang's possession of the device have not been officially confirmed by either company.

The phone's appearance comes as Nvidia and Samsung Electronics have deepened their business relationship in recent months, particularly around AI semiconductor supply, including high-bandwidth memory chips critical to powering advanced AI systems. Huang and Lee have met repeatedly in recent months to discuss that cooperation, including at an AI-focused gathering in San Francisco in July. The two executives are scheduled to meet again on September 28 at the Korea Society's annual gala in New York, where Huang is set to receive the organization's Van Fleet Award alongside Samsung's Lee and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won.

The phone was, in some ways, a footnote to the more attention-grabbing substance of Monday's call itself. Huang, appearing on a panel with the venture capitalist hosts of the All-In podcast, answered the phone mid-interview and told Trump, "I'm onstage with the besties," referring to the podcast's hosts, before working to get the call onto speaker for the audience. Once connected, Trump used the moment to dismiss growing concerns within the technology industry about the pace and safety of AI development, telling the crowd that fears of an AI takeover amounted to what he repeatedly called "a hoax." Huang, for his part, largely agreed with the thrust of Trump's remarks during the exchange, aligning himself with the more skeptical camp in an ongoing industry debate over whether AI development should be slowed to address safety concerns.

Samsung has not issued an official statement addressing Huang's use of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 during the event, and the company has not confirmed whether the device was provided directly to Huang ahead of its public release or purchased through conventional retail channels. Even so, technology industry observers noted that Huang's choice of device, whether deliberate or incidental, gave Samsung's newest foldable an unusual moment of visibility, appearing in the hands of one of the most closely watched executives in the global AI industry during a moment that was already generating widespread media attention for other reasons.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 itself has drawn positive early reception in its own right, with the device's higher-end Ultra variant recently topping Consumer Reports' latest ratings for foldable phones in the United States, according to reviews published around the same time as Huang's appearance at the All-In Summit.

For Samsung, the unplanned product placement arrives amid an already active stretch of public visibility for its devices, including a separate marketing moment in which the company's Canadian social media account referenced a recent celebrity promotional appearance tied to a rival smartphone maker's own new device launch, part of an ongoing pattern of consumer electronics companies capitalizing on unscripted, high-profile moments to draw attention to their latest hardware.

Whether Huang's use of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 during Monday's call reflects a personal preference, a gift from Samsung leadership, or simply the phone he happened to be carrying that day remains unconfirmed. What is clear from the video and photos circulating since the event is that, when the president of the United States called him live onstage in front of thousands of attendees, the device Jensen Huang reached for was Samsung's, not Apple's.