Trump gives top US science awards to Elon Musk and other tech executives

The National Medal of Science is annually given to scientists and engineers for major contributions in their fields.

Al JazeeraAl Jazeera Staff2026-10-08 21:11查看原文 ↗

The National Medal of Science is given annually to scientists and engineers for major contributions in their fields.

US President Donald Trump awarded National Medals of Science to tech industry titans (pictured left to right) Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Dell Techologies CEO Michael Dell, AMD CEO Lisa Su, SpaceX CEO and former Trump adviser Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, October 8 [Kent Nishimura/AFP]

United States President Donald Trump has awarded the country’s most prestigious honours in science and engineering to executives from top technology firms including SpaceX, Alphabet, Microsoft and Nvidia.

On Thursday, Trump presented the National Medal of Science to billionaire SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Lisa Su of the semiconductor firm AMD.

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Two more recipients received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation: Michael Dell of Dell Technologies and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

At the award ceremony, Trump credited the honourees with “helping pioneer an incredible future for America”.

“Because of these people here, we will always be on top. No one else can compete with us,” Trump said.

Five of the six people receiving medals on Thursday were born outside the US. Four are among the 10 wealthiest people in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The award ceremony took place hours after the Trump administration announced it was suspending Microsoft and other top tech companies from using the H-1B visa system, which allows companies to hire skilled foreign workers and put them on a path towards permanent residency in the US.

The suspension, officials said, was due to the companies allegedly using the system in a fraudulent manner.

White House builds ties with Silicon Valley

The medal ceremony was the latest example of what critics see as an increasingly close relationship between Silicon Valley tech executives and the second Trump administration.

Powerful companies like Amazon, Meta and Nvidia contributed money to Trump’s second inauguration, and several high-profile industry leaders attended his swearing-in, including Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Trump, for his part, has pledged to slash regulations and position the US “as the world leader in artificial intelligence”.

He has also touted self-regulation in the AI industry amid concerns about the safety of the technology.

Several of the tech entrepreneurs honoured on Thursday have forged close ties to the White House, through political and business dealings.

The South Africa-born Musk, for example, was the largest contributor to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and has been a supporter of right-wing causes around the world, which he amplifies on his social media platform, X.

He briefly served as a special adviser to the president during the first months of Trump’s second term, helping to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its efforts to downsize the federal government.

Around the time he left DOGE, however, Musk and Trump had a public falling-out over the president’s tax-and-spending plans.

The two have since reconciled. On Thursday, Trump hailed Musk as “our modern-day Thomas Edison” and an “industrial titan”, citing his work with the aerospace company SpaceX and the carmaker Tesla.

“Few Americans in history have done more to advance America’s national interest than Elon in one field after another,” Trump said.

Another honouree, Dell, has been a financial backer of the president’s efforts to launch Trump Accounts, a scheme to enrol American children born during Trump’s second term into government-backed investment accounts.

Dell and his wife Susan Dell committed $6.25bn to the programme last year.

Separately, the White House entered into a deal in August for the US government to take a 15 percent cut of any AI chip sales that Nvidia and AMD make with China.

Huang, Nvidia’s co-founder, later invested in the struggling US tech firm Intel. He is reported to be among the donors financing Trump’s plans for a new White House ballroom.

The National Medal of Science was first awarded in 1963 to Theodore von Karman, a pioneer in aerospace engineering who fled anti-Semitism in Europe during World War II.

He went on to help found the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.

Nominations for the award are solicited by the National Science Foundation, and the recipients are ultimately selected by a committee appointed by the president.

美国国家科学奖章每年颁发给在各自领域做出重大贡献的科学家和工程师。

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普向科技行业巨头颁发国家科学奖章（图从左至右）：微软首席执行官萨蒂亚·纳德拉、戴尔科技公司首席执行官迈克尔·戴尔、AMD首席执行官苏姿丰、SpaceX首席执行官兼前特朗普顾问埃隆·马斯克、英伟达首席执行官黄仁勋和谷歌联合创始人谢尔盖·布林，10月8日。[肯特·西村/法新社]

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普向包括 SpaceX、Alphabet、微软和英伟达在内的顶级科技公司的管理人员颁发了该国科学和工程领域最负盛名的荣誉。

周四，特朗普向亿万富翁 SpaceX 和特斯拉首席执行官埃隆·马斯克、谷歌联合创始人谢尔盖·布林、英伟达首席执行官黄仁勋和半导体公司 AMD 的苏姿丰颁发了国家科学奖章。

列表 1/3：特朗普与科技公司高管签署自愿协议，承诺提供“强有力的”人工智能安全保障

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另有两位获奖者获得了国家技术与创新奖章：戴尔科技公司的迈克尔·戴尔和微软首席执行官萨蒂亚·纳德拉。

在颁奖典礼上，特朗普称赞获奖者“帮助美国开创了美好的未来”。

“正因为有了这些人，我们才能永远保持领先地位。没有人能与我们竞争，”特朗普说道。

周四获得奖章的六人中有五人出生在美国以外。根据彭博亿万富翁指数，其中四人位列全球十大富豪之列。

颁奖典礼举行前几个小时，特朗普政府宣布暂停微软和其他顶级科技公司使用 H-1B 签证系统。该系统允许公司雇用技术娴熟的外国工人，并帮助他们走上获得美国永久居留权的道路。