Silicon Valley is coming to Washington in force, as tech leaders take on prominent roles — both official and unofficial — in President-elect Trump’s second term.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is the most well-known tech figure in Trump’s inner circle, but numerous Silicon Valley executives are filling out the ranks of the president-elect’s administration.
Trump tapped venture capitalist David Sacks earlier this month to serve as the White House czar of artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrency, a new role dedicated to steering the administration’s policy on the two technologies.
“I feel like this is a turning point, and David Sacks here may be just a small part of it, but he represents a connection between the tech community and President-elect Trump,” said Matt Calkins, co-founder and CEO of Appian, a cloud computing and enterprise software firm.
The president-elect also named Jacob Helberg, a senior adviser to the CEO of Palantir Technologies, as under secretary of State for economic growth, energy and the environment.
Jim O’Neill, a biotech investor and close associate of venture capitalist Peter Thiel, will join the administration as deputy secretary of Health and Human Services.