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President Donald Trump presented the National Medal of Science to Elon Musk, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang and AMD chief executive Lisa Su on Thursday. He awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell and Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella.
The White House held the ceremony at its “Science: A New Golden Age” summit, which was billed as the start of a golden age for American science. It was the first time Trump has presented the awards in either of his administrations, according to Fox News.
Musk, who runs SpaceX and Tesla, is the world’s richest person on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His fortune rose back above $1 trillion on Monday. Al Jazeera reported that four of the six honorees are among the world’s 10 richest people, according to Bloomberg.
The ceremony was part of a day of events on artificial intelligence, which the Trump administration now calls “super intelligence,” as well as nuclear power, quantum computing and metascience, or the study of science itself, NBC News reported. Representatives of several leading AI and technology companies attended.
A White House spokesperson, Liz Huston, said in a statement that the administration was “grateful for the contributions of these incredible leaders” in science and technology.
The awards came hours after Vice President JD Vance announced that the administration would suspend Microsoft and several other companies from a programme that lets foreign workers apply for green cards, NBC News reported. Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, was a guest of honour at the event. The Associated Press said five of the six honorees are immigrants.
Musk’s appearance marks a further step in his return to Trump’s orbit after their public feud last year, Fox News reported. The two clashed in June 2025, after Musk criticised Trump’s tax and spending bill.
Musk and Nvidia’s Huang were also among the technology leaders who signed a White House pledge to police the development of advanced artificial intelligence models themselves, The Hill reported.
Musk’s SpaceX is seeking about $40 billion in financing led by Apollo Global Management to buy Nvidia chips, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. Reuters said it could not verify the report, and SpaceX has not announced a financing. SpaceX listed in June in a record $86 billion IPO.
Al Jazeera described Musk as a former Trump adviser. The National Medal of Technology and Innovation, given to Dell and Nadella, is one of the country’s highest honours for innovation, while the National Medal of Science honours scientific achievement.
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