On October 8, 2026, a White Houseābranded summit titled āScience: A New Golden Ageā and a Washington event saw President Donald Trump present the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to several leading technology executives. Jensen Huang received the National Medal of Science with a citation that credits his work in transforming the GPU from a graphics component into a general-purpose computing engine that underpins modern AI and scientific computation, emphasizing massively parallel computation as a driver of breakthroughs. Elon Musk, Sergey Brin and AMD CEO Lisa Su were also listed among the National Medal of Science honorees, while Michael Dell and Satya Nadella were named for the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
The summit framed the awards within a policy agenda focused on AI and research: Energy Secretary Chris Wright and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman spoke, and the administration highlighted intentions to revitalize federal research funding and encourage private investment. Industry activity accompanied the honors, including Nvidiaās provision of compute credits to researchersāaccess to processing power rather than cashāthat could influence which scientific projects proceed. The event also carried a political subtext: Musk has a history of substantial support for Trumpās 2024 campaign and prior involvement with the administration, and his appearance to accept a medal underscores the convergence of tech leadership, government recognition, and the concentrated role of companies that supply chips, cloud services and hardware.