The president of the United States Donald Trump conferred to six protagonists of the American technology industry le National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovationthe highest U.S. honors in their respective fields. Among the winners are Elon Muskfounder and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, Sergey Brinco-founder of Google, Jensen HuangCEO of NVIDIA, Lisa Supresident and CEO of AMD, Michael Dellfounder of Dell Technologies, and Satya NadellaCEO of Microsoft.
The ceremony took place in Washington, at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, as part of the summit Science: A New Golden Age. The initiative aims to relaunch the scientific and technological leadership of the United States by enhancing industry contributions to research, semiconductor development, artificial intelligence and computing infrastructures.
The National Medals of Science were awarded to Musk, Brin, Huang and Su, while Dell and Nadella received the National Medals of Technology and Innovation. The former recognize exceptional contributions to scientific and engineering disciplines; the latter reward innovators whose activities have strengthened the American economy and improved the quality of life.
Among the most relevant awards for the semiconductor sector are those awarded to the top management of NVIDIA and AMD, two companies central to the development of technologies for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.
Jensen Huang was rewarded for contributing to transform GPUs from processors dedicated primarily to graphics into general purpose computing architectures. Innovations in processor design and software have made it possible to exploit parallel computing on a large scale, with applications ranging from scientific research to training artificial intelligence models.
Lisa Su received the National Medal of Science for her career in semiconductor engineering and high-performance computing. The official citation cites advances in processor architecture and chiplet-based integration, technologies that contributed to the development of the world’s first exascale supercomputer.
The motivation relating to Elon Musk underlines the engineering results achieved in the fields of space explorationintelligent systems and communications, as well as contributing to the renewal of American production capacity. The award comes at a time when SpaceX represents one of the main players in the US space sector, while Tesla operates in the electric vehicle and energy systems sector.
Sergey Brin was recognized for developing fundamental algorithms for information retrieval and data processingwhich have changed the way people access information through Google. Michael Dell was awarded for the contribution to the diffusion of personal and business information technology and for building an international technology group. Satya Nadella received the medal for having led Microsoft in its transition to cloud computing and for the development of hyperscale infrastructures necessary for the training and global deployment of artificial intelligence systems.
“Each of these honorees has transformed their sector or industrylaying the foundation for technologies we struggle to imagine life without today,” said Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “Innovators like these six winners are the architects of the future.”
Merit aside, CNBC highlights how all six recipients have contributed financially, in different forms, to electoral campaigns or projects attributable to the president and the Republicans.
Musk was the largest individual donor to Trump’s presidential campaign in the 2024 election cycle, with contributions exceeding $290 million. He later participated in the administration’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce. Brin he took part in the presidential inauguration and gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican National Committee in 2025. NVIDIA – Also Microsoft – contributed one million dollars to the inauguration ceremony and Huang he donated to a fund for the construction of a ballroom in the White House.
Dell has long been a financial supporter of Trump. Together with his wife Susan, he also promised $6.25 billion to finance the so-called Trump Accounts, accounts intended to encourage savings for children in the United States. Also AMD contributed to funds linked to the president.
