Trump names CEOs, nuclear fusion founders and Nobel laureate to tech advisory council
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The announcement includes 13 of the possible 24 members that will make up the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Leadership from Big Tech is further cementing its presence in Washington as the White House unveiled the first 13 members that will compose the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Pursuant to an executive order President Donald Trump signed shortly after taking office, the PCAST is intended to advise the president and other administration officials on crafting the most accurate and comprehensive tech policy consistent with the administration’s goals. The inaugural members, unveiled on Wednesday, include several major tech company leaders, including NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Most of the new members work at the c-level of major tech companies: Sergey Brin, who cofounded Google alongside Larry Page in 1998 and now serves as a board member for Google parent company Alphabet; Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell; Oracle CEO Safra Catz; Oracle Co-Founder, former CEO and current Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison; and Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su.
Leaders in venture capital and investment are also prevalent, such as Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Marc Andreessen; Coinbase cryptocurrency Co-Founder Fred Ehrsam; and entrepreneur David Friedberg.
Jacob DeWitte and Bob Mumgaard represent the fusion energy industry as CEOs of Oklo, Inc. and Commonwealth Fusion Systems, respectively.
Academia also has a voice via John Martinis, a physics professor at the University of California and a 2025 Nobel Laureate in physics.
“Under President Trump, PCAST will focus on topics related to the opportunities and challenges that emerging technologies present to the American workforce, and ensuring all Americans thrive in the Golden Age of Innovation,” the press release reads. The executive order stipulates that PCAST can include up to 24 members, leaving the option of an additional 11 to be announced later, a move the White House says will come soon.
The press release also noted that the council will be co-chaired by AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios
Notably absent from the list is billionaire Elon Musk, who spent a significant amount of time on the 2024 campaign trail with Trump and briefly served as a special government employee setting up the Department of Government Efficiency.
The second Trump administration has consistently courted major tech companies for ambitious projects, striking new partnerships to continue to push U.S. technology to the global forefront.