Trump awards national medals to Musk, Huang, Su, Brin, Dell and Nadella at science summit
In short
US President Donald Trump presented national medals to six technology executives at a White House science summit on Thursday local time, Chinese tech outlets reported citing CNBC. Elon Musk, Sergey Brin, Jensen Huang and Lisa Su received the National Medal of Science, while Michael Dell and Satya Nadella received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. CNBC noted that all the honorees had in some form provided financial support to Trump or Republican campaigns and causes.
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US President Donald Trump presented national medals to six technology executives at a science summit on Thursday local time, IT Home and cnBeta reported on October 9. SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su received the National Medal of Science, and Dell founder Michael Dell and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. cnBeta said the event was called the 'New Golden Age of Science Summit' and was first reported by Fox News; Huxiu gave the name as 'Science: New Golden Age'. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]
White House assistant press secretary Liz Huston said in an emailed statement that the administration is grateful for the contributions of these leaders in science and technology and that the honorees are helping ensure the United States continues to lead global innovation. IT Home reported that before the ceremony the White House gave Trump the medal once awarded to his late uncle, John Trump, whom IT Home identified from public records as an MIT electrical engineering professor posthumously awarded the National Medal of Science by President Reagan in 1983. [ 1 , 3 , 5 ]
The summit came a little over a week after Trump hosted an AI-focused lunch at the White House attended by several executives, including some of the honorees, according to cnBeta. Trump told reporters afterwards that he had signed a 'morally binding' document with tech leaders at a time when calls to slow the development of AI models were peaking. cnBeta reported on October 9 that hours before the ceremony Vice President JD Vance had criticised Microsoft for abusing the visa system to bring in more foreign workers, and noted that five of the six honorees are immigrants. [ 1 , 3 , 4 ]
IT Home and cnBeta, both citing CNBC, said every honoree had in some form provided financial support to Trump or Republican campaigns and causes, some personally and some through their companies. Musk was the largest financial backer of Trump's 2024 election cycle with more than 290 million dollars and later led efforts to cut the federal workforce as a special government employee. Brin attended Trump's inauguration and gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican National Committee in 2025. Huang donated to the fund for a White House ballroom, and Nvidia gave 1 million dollars to the inauguration. Dell, a long-time donor, and his wife Susan pledged 6.25 billion dollars to seed 'Trump Accounts' meant to start savings for American children, and AMD has contributed to a Trump-related fund. CNBC also cited Trump's latest financial disclosure showing he bought or sold shares of SpaceX, Tesla, Nvidia, Microsoft, AMD and Alphabet as recently as July. [ 1 , 3 ]
Huxiu placed the awards in the context of federal cuts to traditional basic research budgets and a White House effort to use private giants' computing power and capital to reshape research. It said Office of Science and Technology Policy director Michael Kratsios released a report of the same name as the summit proposing a 'Genesis Mission', under which companies including AMD, OpenAI and Anthropic would commit more than 1 billion dollars to national research programmes while the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy contribute just over 100 million dollars for AI-driven research tools, with a focus on life sciences and virtual biology. Huxiu also reported a cross-regional computing hub across 10 southeastern states with 14 universities and research institutions, a 1 billion dollar investment in Georgia, and a 1.8 billion dollar virtual biology project led by the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub with Meta, Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs contributing 300 million dollars, the Department of Energy more than 500 million dollars over five years and the NIH more than 500 million dollars in federal datasets. [ 2 ]
Huxiu said the project's datasets would eventually be free to the public but that the companies would hold exclusive access for months to years to train commercial models and file core patents, prompting concern in the scientific community about privatisation of public resources. It reported that academics worry corporate money favours applied fields with short-term commercial returns and that basic research such as pure mathematics and theoretical physics could be marginalised. [ 2 ]
Why it matters
The awards place the heads of SpaceX, Tesla, Google, Nvidia, AMD, Dell and Microsoft at the centre of a White House push to rely on private companies' computing power and capital for national research, as Huxiu described it. Huxiu reported that academics worry corporate funding will favour applied fields with short-term commercial returns and that company data-exclusivity periods raise concerns about privatising public resources. CNBC's reporting that every honoree had funded Trump or Republican causes, and that Trump traded shares in their companies in July, adds a political dimension to the honours.
Key facts
- Elon Musk (SpaceX and Tesla CEO), Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su were awarded the National Medal of Science. [ 1 , 2 , 5 ]
- Dell founder Michael Dell and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella were awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. [ 1 , 2 , 5 ]
- The event was called the 'Science: New Golden Age' summit and was first reported by Fox News, cnBeta said. [ 2 , 3 ]
- CNBC said all the honorees had in some form funded Trump or Republican campaigns and related causes, with some donations from the executives personally and some from their companies. [ 3 ]
- Musk was the largest financial backer of Trump's 2024 election cycle, giving more than 290 million dollars, and later led a cut in the federal workforce as a special government employee. [ 1 , 3 ]
- Michael Dell and his wife Susan pledged 6.25 billion dollars to seed 'Trump Accounts' intended to start savings for American children. [ 1 , 3 ]
- Trump's latest financial disclosure showed he bought or sold shares of SpaceX, Tesla, Nvidia, Microsoft, AMD and Alphabet as recently as July this year, CNBC reported. [ 1 , 3 ]
- Before the ceremony, the White House gave Trump the National Medal of Science that his late uncle John Trump had received, IT Home reported. [ 5 ]
Confirmed by several sources
- Trump awarded the National Medal of Science to Musk, Brin, Huang and Su, and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Dell and Nadella. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 5 ]
- White House assistant press secretary Liz Huston said in an emailed statement that the administration is grateful for the contributions of these leaders in science and technology, who are helping ensure the US continues to lead global innovation. [ 1 , 3 , 5 ]
- The summit came a little over a week after Trump hosted an AI-focused White House lunch, after which he told reporters he had signed a 'morally binding' document with tech leaders amid calls to slow AI model development. [ 1 , 3 ]
- Brin attended Trump's inauguration and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican National Committee in 2025; Huang donated to the fund for building a White House ballroom and Nvidia gave 1 million dollars to Trump's inauguration. [ 1 , 3 ]
- AMD has also contributed to a Trump-related fund. [ 1 , 3 ]
Still unclear
- Huxiu described the summit as having been held in 2024, while IT Home and cnBeta reported the awards were presented on Thursday this week. The outlets' dating of the event differs.
- Hours before the ceremony, Microsoft, led by honoree Satya Nadella, was criticised by Vice President JD Vance for abusing the visa system to bring in foreign workers, and five of the six honorees are immigrants, cnBeta said. Reported only by cnBeta in a feed summary.
- Huxiu reported that the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy director Michael Kratsios released a report proposing a 'Genesis Mission' with more than 1 billion dollars in industry commitments from companies including AMD, OpenAI and Anthropic, against just over 100 million dollars from the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy for AI-driven research tools. Reported only by Huxiu.
- Huxiu reported a 1.8 billion dollar virtual biology project led by the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub with Meta, Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs contributing 300 million dollars, the Department of Energy more than 500 million dollars over five years and the NIH more than 500 million dollars in federal datasets, with companies getting data exclusivity for months to years. Reported only by Huxiu.
What local media are saying
Timeline, local time
- IT Home reports, citing CNBC, that Trump will present national medals to Musk, Brin, Huang, Su, Dell and Nadella at a science summit on Thursday local time (October 8). [ 1 ]
- Huxiu reports on the 'Science: New Golden Age' summit and the White House's research-funding plans (October 8). [ 2 ]
- cnBeta reports CNBC's finding that all honorees had funded Trump or Republican causes (October 8). [ 3 ]
- cnBeta reports that Trump honoured the six executives on Thursday, hours after Vance criticised Microsoft over visas (October 9). [ 4 ]
- IT Home reports the medals were presented and that the White House gave Trump his late uncle John Trump's medal before the ceremony (October 9). [ 5 ]