WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump joined some of America’s most powerful technology leaders Thursday at a summit that the White House heralded as ushering in a “golden age” of American science. Elon Musk, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, AMD CEO Lisa Su, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Dell founder Michael Dell met with Trump and a host of administration officials and scientific luminaries for the Science: A New Golden Age Summit at the US Institute of Peace. “We live in an era of American wonders and technological wonders, and with the help of the brilliant men and women here today, we will always be on top,” Trump said. Trump awarded the National Medal of Science to Musk, Brin, Huang and Su. Awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Nadella and Dell. Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, addresses the audience Thursday afternoon at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Jared Perlo/NBC News Trump presented each of the recipients with medals and certificates of honor, and then asked some of their families to join him on stage for photos. “You will go down in the annals of history as great,” Trump told the recipients. White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said in a statement: “The Trump administration is grateful for the contributions of these incredible leaders in science and technology. These recipients are helping to ensure that the United States continues to lead the world in innovation.” The celebration took place just hours after Vice President JD Vance announced that the Trump administration would suspend Microsoft, whose CEO was an honored guest at the event, and several other companies from a program that allows foreign workers to apply for green cards. Trump awarded Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the National Medal of Technology, one of the country’s highest honors in innovation. Win McNamee/GettySeveral of the summit speakers emphasized the importance of immigrants to America’s scientific power. “I was an immigrant and my parents brought us here to pursue the American dream,” Huang told NBC News while walking around with his parents. “It is an incredible honor and something that could only happen here in the United States.” Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian highlighted the importance of a welcoming immigration system in a conversation about the future of American research universities. Jahanian noted that China produces more engineers and scientists than the United States, Europe and Japan combined. “We need to have an immigration policy that can recruit the best talent to come to this country, speaking as an immigrant who has benefited from the opportunities that this country has,” Jahanian said. “It’s important to recruit top talent to come here so they stay here and contribute.” The summit, an all-day event aimed at highlighting the American scientific enterprise, built on a July report by Michael Kratsios, head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, on how the Trump administration intends to reinvigorate scientific discovery and innovation. “This is the golden age,” Trump said, taking the stage to begin the celebration’s evening program. “For a change, we are an extremely high-IQ audience,” he said, drawing laughter from the audience. The Science: A New Golden Age report and Thursday’s meeting aim to address what the White House sees as a growing scientific bureaucracy and stagnant innovation. Kratsios highlighted the rising costs of clinical trials and falling rates of new drugs approved for patient use as examples of greater scientific slowness. The report says the administration will streamline funding to promising scientists rather than channeling it through established institutions. The event began with a series of announcements about funding new scientific initiatives. Among them is a pledge of about $2.4 billion in AI computing credits and scientific tools from leading U.S. AI companies to federal agencies working on a variety of scientific issues prioritized by the White House. Areas include quantum algorithms, AI-powered physics laboratories, and improving nuclear engineering efficiency. Kratsios also presided over an announcement by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and Energy Secretary Chris Wright about a new partnership to embrace nuclear technology in space exploration. “Thanks to President Trump, America’s nuclear renaissance is reaching a new frontier,” Wright said. Isaacman said nuclear power would allow NASA spacecraft to travel farther and operate longer, “opening up a whole new frontier for exploration and discovery.” Representatives from some of the top US technology companies attended, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Amazon Web Services and Micron Technology. Jared Perlo / NBC News The day focused on a handful of scientific fields, including artificial intelligence (now called “superintelligence” by the Trump administration), nuclear energy, quantum computing and metascience, or the study of science itself. “Superintelligence will be the biggest unlock for scientists,” Kratsios said as he opened the celebration. Representatives from leading US artificial intelligence companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Amazon Web Services and Micron Technology, took the stage to announce their new partnerships with the federal government. A variety of scientists from academic institutions and companies gave a series of lightning talks about their research, which focused largely on nuclear energy and the use of AI to accelerate their research. Speakers ranged between using “AI” and “SI,” the term preferred by administration officials since Trump issued an executive order to rename the technology. John Martinis, a physics professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, said the technology was already accelerating his group’s research. When asked what a golden age of science would look like for him, Martinis said he didn’t have to look far. “I feel like we’re in it right now,” he said. “It’s really exciting what’s happening with SI.”
