Trump to award science and tech medals to Musk, Dell, Nadella at summit
President Donald Trump will award the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to tech executives at a summit on Thursday, the White House said.
Key facts
- Elon Musk, Sergey Brin, Jensen Huang and Lisa Su will receive the National Medal of Science, according to the White House.
- Michael Dell and Satya Nadella will receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the White House said.
- The event is titled "Science: A New Golden Age Summit"; Fox News first reported it, according to CNBC.
- CNBC reported every recipient has financially contributed to Trump or Republican campaigns and causes.
- The summit follows a White House lunch on artificial intelligence held a little over a week earlier.
President Donald Trump is awarding medals to leading tech executives at a science summit on Thursday, CNBC confirmed. Elon Musk, who leads SpaceX and Tesla, will receive the National Medal of Science. So will Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su, according to the White House. Dell and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
The event is titled "Science: A New Golden Age Summit." Fox News was first to report on it, according to CNBC. "The Trump Administration is grateful for the contributions of these incredible leaders in science and technology," White House assistant press secretary Liz Huston said in an emailed statement.
CNBC reported the summit comes a little over a week after Trump hosted a White House lunch focused on artificial intelligence. Several of the medal recipients attended, along with others in the industry. Trump told reporters after the lunch that he signed a "morally binding" document with the tech leaders. CNBC reported calls for a slowdown in the development of AI models were intensifying at the time.
According to CNBC, each recipient at Thursday's summit has financially contributed, in some capacity, to Trump or Republican campaigns and causes. Musk was Trump's biggest financial backer in the 2024 election cycle, contributing over $290 million. He then led an effort to slash the federal workforce as a special government employee in the Trump administration.
Brin attended Trump's inauguration and contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican National Committee in 2025, according to CNBC. Huang donated to a fund to build Trump's White House ballroom. Nvidia contributed $1 million to Trump's inauguration ceremony.
Dell is a longtime Trump donor, CNBC reported. He and his wife Susan committed $6.25 billion to seed Trump Accounts, which are designed to jumpstart savings for children in the U.S. AMD is also contributing to Trump funds. According to his most recent disclosure, Trump bought or sold shares in SpaceX, Tesla, Nvidia, Microsoft, AMD and Google parent Alphabet as recently as July 2026.
Context
The summit follows a White House lunch on artificial intelligence held a little over a week earlier. Trump told reporters after that lunch that he signed a "morally binding" document with tech leaders. CNBC reported every medal recipient has donated to Trump or Republican campaigns and causes.
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