US President Donald Trump is inviting some of Silicon Valley's most influential figures to join a new White House advisory committee aimed at guiding US policy in artificial intelligence and other critical technology sectors.
The committee's membership includes Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison, and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, among others. However, Trump's former close ally Elon Musk has been excluded from the list.
According to a press release from the US Office of Science and Technology Policy, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) "brings together the nation's most distinguished scientists, engineers, and technologists to advise the President and make recommendations on strengthening American leadership in science and technology." The release further noted that the council will focus on topics such as "the opportunities and challenges that emerging technologies present for the American workforce, and how to ensure all Americans thrive in this golden age of innovation."
The press release stated that every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 has established a PCAST composed of scientists, engineers, and industry leaders.
Trump established PCAST via an executive order in January of this year. The council can have up to 24 members and will be co-chaired by White House AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks and Senior Technology Advisor Michael Kratsios. Newly appointed members include 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 UC Santa Barbara professor John Martinis, Commonwealth Fusion Systems CEO Bob Mumgaard, and AMD CEO Lisa Su.
The committee is primarily composed of industry leaders and investors driving the commercial development of artificial intelligence. Safra Catz and Lisa Su are the only two women on the council, while John Martinis is the sole academic researcher.
Other prominent executives, such as Apple CEO Tim Cook and OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman, are also not members of the new advisory body. No executives from Microsoft were invited to join either.
As one of the world's wealthiest individuals, Musk previously donated over $250 million to support Trump's presidential campaign. During the initial months of Trump's second term, Musk was one of his closest advisors, but the two had a falling out over disputes related to the "Big and Beautiful" Act.
Subsequently, their relationship has thawed somewhat but has not returned to its former closeness.
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