Trump taps Zuckerberg, Huang, Ellison for tech advisory council—but excludes Musk and Altman
President Trump is turning to some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley—including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle executive chairman Larry Ellison and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang—to help guide U.S. policy on AI and other key technologies through a new White House advisory council.
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A press release from the Office of Science and Technology Policy said the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, or PCAST, “brings together the Nation’s foremost luminaries in science and technology to advise the President and provide recommendations on strengthening American leadership in science and technology.” It added that the council 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.”
Each president since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 has established a PCAST advisory committee of scientists, engineers, and industry leaders, the press release said.
Trump established the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology by executive order in January, saying that “as our global competitors race to exploit these technologies, it is a national security imperative for the United States to achieve and maintain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance.”
The council, which can include up to 24 members, will be co-chaired by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and senior technology adviser Michael Kratsios. The newly appointed group includes Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, former Oracle CEO Safra Catz, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Oklo co-founder and CEO Jacob DeWitte, Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, entrepreneur and investor David Friedberg, physicist and University of California, Santa Barbara professor John Martinis, Commonwealth Fusion Systems CEO Bob Mumgaard and AMD CEO Lisa Su.
Catz and Su are the only two women, while the lineup leans heavily toward industry leaders and investors shaping the commercial AI boom – Martinis is the only academic researcher.
Notably absent are OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, any executives from Microsoft, and Tesla, SpaceX and xAI CEO Elon Musk, who previously led the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk has previously taken issue with perceived White House slights. In 2021, the Biden administration held an event on electric vehicles, but Tesla was not invited despite being the top U.S. EV seller. It was a decision Musk criticized, saying it “was odd” that Tesla wasn’t invited.
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