Trump honors Musk, tech executives with top US science medals

US President Donald Trump on Thursday awarded the National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology and Innovation to six leading technology executives, including SpaceX founder Elon Musk, during a ceremony at the New Golden Age Summit in Washington, DC.

Honors for innovation

Trump presented the National Medal of Science to Musk, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su, while Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. "Few Americans in history have done more to advance America's national interest than Elon," Trump said at the Institute of Peace, calling the billionaire entrepreneur "our modern-day Thomas Edison."

The president also highlighted Huang's contributions to the semiconductor sector, noting Nvidia's central role in powering global artificial intelligence systems. "The entire world is now running on Nvidia," he said, underscoring the chipmaker's market dominance.

Quantum computing goals

Trump outlined his administration's broader agenda to maintain US technological supremacy, citing recent initiatives in quantum computing and superintelligence. He noted that he had signed an executive order setting "the goal of delivering a quantum computer for scientific discovery by 2028," established the Genesis Mission to address scientific mysteries through advanced computing, and brokered the White House accord on superintelligence last week. "With the help of the brilliant men and women here today, we will always be on top. There is nobody that can compete with us, nobody," he said.