U.S. President-elect Donald Trump attends Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., December 22, 2024.
Cheney Orr | Reuters
President-elect Donald Trump is tapping tech heavyweights to join his new administration, continuing a trend of Silicon Valley’s growing influence in a second Trump White House.
Trump said Sunday he would nominate Scott Kupor, a managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, to be director of the Office of Personnel Management, which coordinates recruitment and provides resources for government employees.
Kupor thanked Trump in a post on X and said the opportunity would allow him to work with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in their leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a nascent commission aimed at cutting government spending and regulation.
Trump also picked Sriram Krishnan as senior policy advisor for artificial intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Krishnan, who most recently served as a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, has had a long career in tech, with roles at Microsoft, Meta, Twitter, Snap and Yahoo. He has previous ties to Musk, helping him “temporarily” run the social media service X after Musk acquired the platform, formerly known as Twitter, for $44 billion in 2022.
Musk, a tech billionaire who was one of Trump’s top donors and most vocal supporters during his campaign, has emerged as one of the president-elect’s closest advisors. His outsized influence over Trump has led to growing consternation among Democrats, foreign leaders and business executives, some of whom compete with Musk’s companies. Along with X, Musk also runs vehicle maker Tesla, space exploration company SpaceX and brain tech startup Neuralink.
Krishnan will likely work closely with David Sacks, another tech executive who has a long history with Musk. Trump earlier this month named Sacks — a venture capitalist, former PayPal COO and popular podcaster — as “czar” of crypto and AI.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is joined by Tesla and SpaceX CEO and proposed co-chair of the DOGE commission Elon Musk, and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance at the Army-Navy football game in Landover, Maryland, U.S., December 14, 2024.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
Trump on Sunday also tapped Ken Howery, a co-founder of PayPal and Founders Fund, as his pick for U.S. ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark. He also appointed Michael Kratsios, who was most recently a managing director at tech startup Scale AI, as the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Kratsios served as Chief Technology Officer during Trump’s first administration.
In addition, Trump named former Uber executive Emil Michael as undersecretary for research and engineering.
Tech business leaders cheered the appointments in social media posts. Former Meta executive David Marcus called Trump’s selections “remarkable picks,” while Box CEO Aaron Levie said the appointments were “very strong.”
Since Trump’s election victory, a slew of tech companies have thrown their support behind the President-elect — a significant departure from his first term, when the industry at large maintained a tense relationship with Trump.
Amazon, Meta and OpenAI Sam Altman have announced donations of $1 million each to Trump’s inaugural committee. And in recent weeks, Silicon Valley executives have made pilgrimages to Trump’s residence Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.