Trump awards national medals to six technology executives

Four received the National Medal of Science and two the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The ceremony came amid a dispute over restrictions on foreign workers at Microsoft.

On October 8, U.S. President Donald Trump presented the National Medal of Science to SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Google’s Sergey Brin, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and AMD’s Lisa Su. Dell Technologies chief Michael Dell and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. The ceremony took place in Washington at the Science: A New Golden Age summit.

The White House cited the recipients’ contributions to computing, semiconductors and the development of cloud infrastructure. The medals have traditionally gone mainly to scientists and researchers, making the choice of corporate executives a notable departure from past practice.

Five of the six recipients were born outside the United States. On the same day, Vice President JD Vance announced that Microsoft would be suspended from a program through which companies apply for permanent residence for skilled foreign workers who arrived on H-1B visas. The Associated Press highlighted the contrast on the day Nadella received his medal.

The summit also included separate pledges from the technology sector to support the administration’s research initiatives. Eleven companies said they would provide a total of $2.4 billion in computing credits to the Genesis Mission Consortium, which is intended to support research using artificial intelligence across more than 15 federal agencies.