Trump forms White House Technology Advisory Committee; Musk not on the invited list

President Trump is inviting some of Silicon Valley’s most influential figures to join a new White House advisory council to help guide U.S. policies in artificial intelligence and other critical technologies.

The members of this advisory council include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison, and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, but former close ally Elon Musk has been excluded.

A press release from the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy states that the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) “brings together the nation’s leading experts in science and technology to advise the President and provide recommendations on how to strengthen America’s leadership in these fields.” The release also added that the council will focus on issues such as “the opportunities and challenges that emerging technologies present to the American workforce, and how to ensure all Americans thrive in this era of innovation.”

The press release notes that since 1933, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was President, every U.S. president has established a Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) composed of scientists, engineers, and industry leaders.

Trump established the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in January of this year through an executive order. The council can have up to 24 members and will be jointly chaired by David Sachs, head of the White House Office of Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency Affairs, and senior technology advisor Michael Kratsios. The new appointees include: Mark Anderson, co-founder of Anderson Horowitz; Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google; Safra Catz, former CEO of Oracle; Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Technologies; Jacob DeWitt, co-founder and CEO of Oklo; Fred Ersam, co-founder of Coinbase; entrepreneur and investor David Friedberg; physicist and professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara John Martinis; Bob Mumgaard, CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems; and AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su.

The committee is mainly composed of industry leaders and investors driving the development of commercial artificial intelligence. Catz and Dr. Su are the only two women on the committee, and Martinis is the only academic researcher.

Other well-known executives, such as Apple CEO Tim Cook and OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman, were not invited to join the new advisory council. Microsoft also did not have any executives invited.

As one of the wealthiest people in the world, Musk has donated over $250 million to Trump’s presidential campaigns. During the first few months of Trump’s second term, Musk was one of his closest advisors, but they temporarily parted ways over disagreements related to the “Big and Beautiful” bill.

Since then, their relationship has eased but has not returned to its previous closeness.