Trump Names Zuckerberg, Huang, Ellison to White House AI Council

President Donald Trump appointed 13 tech executives to his President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology on March 25, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and Oracle executive chairman Larry Ellison.

"Brings together the Nation's foremost luminaries in science and technology to advise the President and provide recommendations on strengthening American leadership in science and technology." White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Members will focus on topics related to emerging technologies and the American workforce, advising on AI research, semiconductor manufacturing, and national security applications.

David Sacks will co-chair the council alongside Michael Kratsios. Sacks holds the title of AI and crypto czar in Trump's administration, while Kratsios is senior technology adviser.

Who's on the council

The 13 appointed members include venture capitalist Marc Andreessen from Andreessen Horowitz, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, and former Oracle CEO Safra Catz. Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell and Oklo co-founder Jacob DeWitte joined the group, along with Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam and entrepreneur David Friedberg.

Oracle executive chairman Larry Ellison will serve on the council alongside Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. The academic contingent includes physicist John Martinis from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Commonwealth Fusion Systems CEO Bob Mumgaard, AMD CEO Lisa Su, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg round out the initial appointments.

Safra Catz and Lisa Su are the only two women appointed so far. John Martinis is the only academic researcher on the council, with the remaining members coming from industry leadership and venture capital.

Who's not on the council

Elon Musk was not appointed to the council. Neither was Sam Altman or any Microsoft executives.

Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI all operate under Musk's leadership. His xAI raised $6 billion in Series B funding in May 2024 and operates the Grok AI model. OpenAI, run by Altman, developed ChatGPT and secured $500 million from SoftBank in January 2026.

Trump's Department of Government Efficiency was previously led by Musk before he stepped down in February 2026. Fortune reported that Musk said it "was odd" when Tesla wasn't invited to a Biden administration electric vehicle event in 2021.

"As our global competitors race to exploit these technologies, it is a national security imperative for the United States to achieve and maintain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance." Trump's January 2026 executive order establishing PCAST said.

What the council does

PCAST advises the president on science and technology policy. Trump established the council by executive order in January 2026.

Up to 24 members can serve on PCAST. The White House said "additional members will be appointed in the near future along with information about the Council's first meeting."

Franklin D. Roosevelt established the first science advisory board in 1933. Every president since has maintained a PCAST advisory committee, with composition and focus varying by administration.

What these executives bring

Jensen Huang's Nvidia controls roughly 90 percent of the AI accelerator market. The company shipped over 4 million H100 and H200 GPUs in 2025. Nvidia's market capitalization crossed $3 trillion in October 2025.

Mark Zuckerberg runs Meta's AI infrastructure, including the Llama model family and 600,000+ H100 GPUs deployed across data centers. Meta spent $38 billion on infrastructure in 2025, primarily for AI training clusters.

Larry Ellison's Oracle provides cloud computing services for AI training workloads. The company signed a $10 billion deal with OpenAI in September 2025 to provide compute infrastructure.

Sergey Brin co-founded Google and remains deeply involved in the company's AI research. Google operates TPU chips that compete with Nvidia in the AI accelerator market. Brin personally contributes to Gemini model development.

Marc Andreessen's venture capital firm has deployed over $3 billion into AI startups since 2023. Portfolio companies include Anduril, Replit, and ElevenLabs. Andreessen has publicly advocated for accelerating AI development over safety concerns.

Why this matters for AI policy

The council's composition signals where federal AI policy is heading. Hardware manufacturers and cloud providers dominate the appointments. Academic AI safety researchers are absent.

John Martinis specializes in quantum computing physics, not AI alignment. NIST's AI Safety Institute has no representation on the council. Academic labs focused on AI risk were excluded.

Commercial deployment takes priority over safety research in the council's structure. The White House press release said the council will focus on "ensuring all Americans thrive in the Golden Age of Innovation."

What happens next

PCAST will meet at intervals set by the White House and produce reports on specific technology policy questions. Topics could include AI regulation, export controls on chips, data center energy consumption, and workforce retraining.

Trump released a National AI Legislative Framework on March 20 outlining priorities including federal preemption of state AI laws and protecting children online. Sacks and Kratsios will likely seek council input on implementation.

Tech companies signed a Ratepayer Protection Pledge in March promising not to raise electricity bills for households despite massive data center power consumption. Several signatories now hold seats on PCAST.