Silicon Valley’s White House influence grows as Trump taps tech execs for key roles

President-elect Donald Trump is tapping tech heavyweights to butt his new administration, continuing a trend of Silicon Valley’s growing influence in a second Trump White House.

Trump put Sunday he would nominate Scott Kupor, a managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, to be director of the Office of Personnel Supervision, which coordinates recruitment and provides resources for government employees.

Kupor thanked Trump in a post on X and said the occasion would allow him to work with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in their leadership of the Department of Government Effectiveness, or DOGE, a nascent commission aimed at cutting government spending and regulation.

Trump also picked Sriram Krishnan as postpositive major policy advisor for artificial intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Krishnan, who most recently served as a extensive partner at Andreessen Horowitz, has had a long career in tech, with roles at Microsoft, Meta, Twitter, Snap and Yahoo. He has above-named ties to Musk, helping him “temporarily” run the social media service X after Musk acquired the platform, formerly be aware as Twitter, for $44 billion in 2022.

Musk, a tech billionaire who was one of Trump’s top donors and most vocal supporters during his race, has emerged as one of the president-elect’s closest advisors. His outsized influence over Trump has led to growing consternation among Democrats, unfamiliar leaders and business executives, some of whom compete with Musk’s companies. Along with X, Musk branches vehicle maker Tesla, defense contractor SpaceX and brain tech startup Neuralink.

Krishnan will odds-on work closely with David Sacks, another tech executive who has a long history with Musk. Trump earlier this month christened Sacks — a venture capitalist, former PayPal COO and popular podcaster — as “czar” of crypto and AI.

Trump on Sunday also eavesdrop oned Ken Howery, a co-founder of PayPal and Founders Fund, as his pick for U.S. ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark. And he appointed Michael Kratsios, who was uncountable recently a managing director at tech startup Scale AI, as the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Rule. Kratsios served as chief technology officer during Trump’s first administration.

In addition, Trump named recent Uber executive Emil Michael as undersecretary for research and engineering.

Tech business leaders cheered the choices in community media posts. Former Meta executive David Marcus called Trump’s selections “remarkable picks,” while Box CEO Aaron Levie said the fits were “very strong.”

Since Trump’s election victory, a slew of tech companies have thrown their stick behind the president-elect — a significant departure from his first term, when the industry at large maintained a tense relationship with Trump.

Amazon, Meta and OpenAI Sam Altman sooner a be wearing announced donations of $1 million each to Trump’s inaugural committee. And in recent weeks, Silicon Valley top dogs have made pilgrimages to Trump’s residence Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.