Donald Trump has given the United States’ highest honours in science and engineering to six technology executives, among them Elon Musk, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella. Critics see it as a sign of how close Silicon Valley and the White House have become.
United States President Donald Trump has awarded the country’s most prestigious honours in science and engineering to executives from some of its largest technology companies, Al Jazeera reported.
The ceremony took place on Thursday, October 8.
Who Was Honoured
Four people received the National Medal of Science:
- Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX and Tesla
- Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google
- Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia
- Lisa Su of the semiconductor firm AMD
Two more received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation:
- Michael Dell of Dell Technologies
- Satya Nadella, chief executive of Microsoft
What Trump Said
Trump credited the six with “helping pioneer an incredible future for America”.
“Because of these people here, we will always be on top. No one else can compete with us,” he said.
He called Musk “our modern-day Thomas Edison” and an “industrial titan”, citing his work with SpaceX and Tesla.
Born Abroad
Five of the six recipients were born outside the United States. Four are among the 10 wealthiest people in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The ceremony came hours after the Trump administration announced it was suspending Microsoft and other leading technology companies from the H-1B visa system, which allows companies to hire skilled foreign workers. Officials said the companies had allegedly used the system fraudulently.
Ties Between Washington and Silicon Valley
Al Jazeera described the ceremony as the latest example of what critics see as an increasingly close relationship between technology executives and the second Trump administration.
Several of those honoured have political or business links to the White House:
- Musk was the largest contributor to Trump’s 2024 campaign and briefly served as a special adviser. The two fell out publicly over the president’s tax-and-spending plans and have since reconciled.
- Michael Dell and his wife Susan committed $6.25 billion last year to “Trump Accounts”, a scheme of government-backed investment accounts for American children.
- In August, the White House reached a deal for the US government to take a 15 percent cut of any AI chip sales that Nvidia and AMD make to China.
About the Medal
The National Medal of Science is given to scientists and engineers for major contributions in their fields. It was first awarded in 1963, to the aerospace engineer Theodore von Kármán.
Nominations are solicited by the National Science Foundation, and recipients are chosen by a committee appointed by the president.
Image: Elon Musk and Donald Trump in the Oval Office, May 2025 (not the medal ceremony). White House photo by Daniel Torok via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.