The tech leaders poised to help Trump run the government
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- Donald Trump is stacking his second administration with a slate of Silicon Valley insiders.
- The president-elect has tapped at least a dozen tech leaders for government roles.
- These are the businessmen, tech gurus, and venture capitalists who will help Trump govern.
President-elect Donald Trump is stacking his second administration with a cadre of Silicon Valley insiders.
In recent months, Trump has tapped a number of tech executives for a wide range of official government roles while elevating several other industry vets to less formal advisory positions.
Those joining the Trump administration in any official capacity will be subject to federal conflict of interest laws that prohibit government employees from having a hand in anything that could directly affect their financial interests, said Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota and former Chief White House Ethics lawyer under George W. Bush.
Private sector employees who join the government are generally required to sell any related financial holdings or recuse themselves from specific matters, Painter told Business Insider.
Exceptions exist, however, including at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a cost-cutting committee that will exist outside of government. Its leaders, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, won't be government employees, nor will they have to divest themselves of their businesses.
Here are some of the tech personalities Trump has tasked with helping run the federal government:
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Trump's pick for: Co-leader of the Department of Government Efficiency
Background: Elon Musk is the world's richest person and the founder of several major companies, including SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and xAI. He also bought X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2022 and currently serves as its CTO.
Musk, who spent at least $277 million supporting Trump and the Republican Party during the 2024 cycle, has said his super PAC will remain active in the midterms. In the months since the election, Musk has remained close to Trump's side and waded into political issues beyond his capacity as the DOGE co-head, like congressional budget negotiations.
AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File
Trump's pick for: Co-leader of the Department of Government Efficiency
Background: Vivek Ramaswamy founded the pharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences and Strive Asset Management, an investment fund supported by conservative tech billionaire Peter Thiel. Though he ran for the Republican presidential nomination, Ramaswamy will join Musk in overseeing DOGE. Ramaswamy has said that he expects "certain agencies to be deleted outright."
Musk has said he wants to slash some $2 trillion from the federal budget, and the DOGE co-heads outlined their cost-cutting agenda in a lengthy opinion piece. Federal outlays hit $6.75 trillion in 2024, so the proposed cuts could run up against mandatory spending for entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Ramaswamy and Musk have criticized overregulation and the size of the federal workforce in particular.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Trump's pick for: Vice President
Background: Before rising in Republican politics, JD Vance worked in Silicon Valley, including at Peter Thiel's venture capital firm, Mithril Capital. He eventually started his own VC firm in 2019, Narya Capital, whose early backers included Thiel and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. According to his vice president and senate disclosure forms, Vance still has a stake in Narya Capital Fund I, Narya Capital Fund II, and Rise of the Rest Seed Fund.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/Getty Images
Trump's pick for: White House AI and crypto czar
Background: The venture capitalist and former PayPal COO founded the enterprise social networking platform Yammer, acquired by Microsoft for $1.2 billion in 2012. He now works at the VC firm Craft, which he co-founded in 2017.
Sacks was also an angel investor in companies such as SpaceX, Uber, and Palantir. As a member of the "PayPal Mafia," Sacks has worked with other tech titans like Musk and Thiel. The "All-In" podcaster will develop a framework for digital currency as the chair of Trump's Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets.
Andreessen Horowitz
Trump's pick for: Director of the Office of Personnel Management
Background: Scott Kupor is a partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and was one of the company's first employees. Kupor has said he looks for "egomaniacal" founders. He managed a16z's growth from $300 million in assets under management to more than $40 billion, according to the firm's website. Before joining a16z, Kupor worked in various capacities at Hewlett-Packard, the software company Opsware, and in M&A at Credit Suisse First Boston and Lehman Brothers, according to a16z's website.
YouTube
Trump's pick for: Senior policy advisor for artificial intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Background: Most recently, Sriram Krishnan was a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Before joining a16z, he ran product and engineering groups at X, Meta, and Snap, according to a16z's website. The firm said he began his career at Microsoft as a founding member of Windows Azure. Krishnan was a16z's main contact with Twitter after Musk bought it in 2022, and he interviewed the Tesla CEO on a pandemic-era audio show.
Trump wrote on X that Krishnan would work closely with David Sacks to focus on "ensuring continued American leadership" in AI and help coordinate government policy about the technology.
Jemal Countess/Getty Images
Trump's pick for: US ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark
Background: A cofounder of PayPal and Founders Fund, Ken Howery was the US ambassador to Sweden under the first Trump administration. In announcing Howery's appointment, Trump wrote on Truth Social that for "purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity."
Trump proposed the same idea in 2019 — which the island and Denmark rejected. Greenland is an autonomous dependent territory of Denmark, a member of NATO, and a US ally.
Christian Oth
Trump's pick for: Undersecretary for economic growth, energy, and the environment at the US State Department
Background: Jacob Helberg is a senior advisor to Palantir CEO Alex Karp. Palantir, a data mining company co-founded by Thiel, has several government contracts and counts the US federal government as one of its biggest clients. Helberg is a member of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. He has propelled the effort to ban TikTok in the US and is also the author of "The Wires of War: Technology and the Global Struggle for Power."
Web Summit/YouTube
Trump's pick for: Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Background: Michael Kratsios is a managing director at Scale AI. He served as chief technology officer during Trump's first administration and has been working on tech policy for the transition, according to Politico.
Trump wrote on X that Kratsios will work closely with Sacks and also serve as an assistant to the president for science and technology. He also said that Kratsios had received a Distinguished Public Service Medal from the Defense Department.
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers/YouTube
Trump's pick for: Undersecretary of Defense for research and engineering
Background: Emil Michael was the chief business officer at Uber and COO of Klout, a now-defunct social media company that ranked users' online social influence. Previously he served as special assistant to the Secretary of Defense. He built several companies during his career, the first being Tellme Networks in 1999, according to his website. Microsoft acquired Tellme Networks in 2007. Michael has invested in or advised various companies, including Stripe.
While at Uber, Michael led the company's work in China and built its Uber for Business unit, according to his bio.
Keegan Barber/The White House via Associated Press
Trump's pick for: Executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology
Background: Parker previously served as Trump's deputy Chief Technology Officer and was the founding director of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office. She has served as associate vice chancellor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and as director of the AI Tennessee Initiative, according to the university's website. UT credited her with leading development of several "landmark" national AI polices, including some concerning federal use of the technology.
AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File
Trump's pick for: Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission
Background: Paul Atkins, a vocal crypto supporter, is the founder and CEO of risk management consultancy Patomak Global Partners and has been the co-chair of the Digital Chamber's Token Alliance, an industry group, since 2017. He served as an SEC commissioner under President George W. Bush.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that Atkins "recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before." If confirmed, Atkins will replace the current chair of SEC, Gary Gensler, who has drawn the ire of much of the crypto industry over his regulatory efforts.
Eugene Gologursky/Getty
Trump's pick for: Administrator of NASA
Background: The billionaire SpaceX astronaut founded Shift4 Payments, a payment processing firm. His nomination comes only months after he completed the first commercial spacewalk. Isaacman, who dropped out of high school and started two companies, has commanded several space missions for Musk's SpaceX.
He flew twice to space in SpaceX's Crew Dragon — for flights he commissioned, funded, and commanded, as BI previously reported.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Trump's pick for: Deputy Secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services
Background: Jim O'Neill is a Silicon Valley investor who served as acting CEO of the Thiel Foundation, helping to found the organization's fellowship. In 2012, he worked with Thiel to launch Mithril Capital Management, the VC fund that eventually hired Vance, and worked there until 2019. He was briefly the CEO of the health organization SENS Research Foundation and sits on the board of ADvantage Therapeutics, which focuses on therapies for neurodegenerative conditions.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Trump's pick for: Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice
Background: A known tech advisor, Slater has worked for various tech companies, including as a lawyer at the Internet Association, a defunct lobbying group representing companies including Google, Facebook, and Amazon. She also worked at the streaming platform Roku.
