President Donald Trump is set to bestow national honors upon a group of prominent technology executives, including Elon Musk and Michael Dell, during a summit on Thursday. The event, officially titled the Science: A New Golden Age Summit, will recognize industry leaders for their impact on American innovation, CNBC has confirmed.
According to the White House, Musk, who serves as CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla, will receive the National Medal of Science. He will be joined by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su for the same honor. Meanwhile, Dell and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella are slated to receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Fox News originally reported on the upcoming ceremony.
Liz Huston, the White House assistant press secretary, emphasized the administration’s appreciation for these figures. In an emailed statement, she noted that the Trump Administration is grateful for the contributions of “incredible leaders in science and technology” who are helping to ensure the United States maintains its global leadership in innovation.
The summit follows a White House lunch focused on artificial intelligence hosted by Trump roughly a week prior, which drew in several of the same executives. After that gathering, Trump told reporters he had signed a “morally binding” document with the tech leaders regarding AI development, responding to intensifying calls for a slowdown in the advancement of AI models.
Reports indicate that each of the award recipients has provided financial support to Trump or Republican causes. Musk stood out as Trump’s largest financial backer during the 2024 election cycle, contributing more than $290 million, and later led efforts to reduce the federal workforce while serving as a special government employee in the administration. Brin attended the presidential inauguration and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican National Committee in 2025. Huang contributed to a fund for the construction of the White House ballroom, and Nvidia gave $1 million toward the inauguration. Dell, a longstanding donor, and his wife Susan committed $6.25 billion to seed Trump Accounts aimed at boosting savings for American children. AMD has also made contributions to Trump-related funds.
Recent financial disclosures show that Trump bought or sold shares in SpaceX, Tesla, Nvidia, Microsoft, AMD, and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, as recently as July.
Morally binding AI document? Sounds great in theory, but does anyone actually enforce it? Hard to be optimistic here.
I think we should appreciate the innovation these companies bring. Keeping US tech leadership is important for everyone.
Elon getting a science medal is wild. He’s a businessman and politician, not a researcher in the traditional sense.
Wow, I didn’t realize Trump was trading shares in all these companies. Isn’t that a conflict of interest?
This feels less like honoring scientists and more like a payoff to major donors. The timing is suspicious.