Trump wants Apple's Cook to run Nvidia. Why that's a bad idea.

Summary

President Donald Trump says Tim Cook should become CEO of Nvidia. One analyst says there's a "near zero" chance of it happening.

Tim Cook created a legacy as one of the great tech CEOs of this generation during his time at Apple. Taking over Nvidia could spoil that hard earned reputation.

Jensen Huang resigned from serving as Nvidia's CEO on Thursday. This came after admitting to an affair with a woman who is suspected of being a Chinese spy. The New York Times also reported there was a second affair, allegedly with a Nvidia executive.

For now, CFO Colette Kress has taken over as interim chief executive, but it's unclear who will permanently take over the company.

President Donald Trump weighed in on the matter Thursday afternoon.

"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. A Legend replaces a Legend!," he said in a Truth Social post.

Cook was CEO of Apple for 15 years until he stepped down from the role on Sept. 1 and was replaced by John Ternus. He is now executive chair of Apple's board.

Apple didn't respond to a Barron's request for comment.

Cook had a strong connection to the Trump administration during his last two years at the helm, and that was helped by Apple committing to spending hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. investments over the next four years.

"Trump developed a direct, pragmatic working relationship with Cook while he was CEO of Apple, so there is likely comfort in that relationship," said Ed O'Gorman, CEO and Managing Partner of River Wealth Advisor. "He may also view Tim Cook as a capable successor after his accomplishments stepping into Steve Jobs' CEO role."

However, it's highly unlikely Cook would take the job.

"Despite the headlines and the temporary spike in prediction markets, the actual probability of this happening is near zero," O'Gorman said.

He added that Apple and Nvidia's businesses are very different.

Apple is the world's largest consumer tech company, while Nvidia makes chips that power tech hardware. Cook's strength wouldn't translate.

Joe Tigay, portfolio manager at Equity Armor Investments, agrees.

"Cook is a reassuring name, a proven operational and diplomatic leader, and someone Trump knows how to deal with. But a move to Nvidia seems very unlikely to me," he said. "We should treat this as Trump floating a name, not take it as gospel or assume it reflects what Nvidia's board or Cook actually wants."

That's likely for the best.

Cook is widely remembered as a successful executive. Apple stock surged around 2,000% during his time as CEO. Cook introduced multiple memorable products, like AirPods and the Apple Watch, while also transforming the company's services business.

Apple is now known for having an incredibly sticky ecosystem where customers keep coming back for more.

It would be shocking if he stepped into a role at a company dealing with turmoil, potentially tainting the reputation he worked hard to build.

Cook has also faced some criticism for Apple's AI push. The company has partnered with AI labs on its Apple Intelligence updates, and the updates that are out there have yet to wow consumers. Ternus took over as CEO with the intimidating yet important job of proving that these updates are working.

"Cook was very cautious with the application of AI at Apple, while Nvidia has grown an effective risk-taking engineering culture," O'Gorman said.

Whoever takes over the Nvidia CEO role will have big shoes to fill. It shouldn't be Cook.