President Trump is assembling a tech-heavy advisory council, and the first four names tell you everything about where his administration’s priorities lie. Mark Zuckerberg, Jensen Huang, Larry Ellison, and Sergey Brin will serve as the inaugural members of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), as reported by The Verge AI, citing the Wall Street Journal.
The panel will “weigh in on AI policy” and start with 13 members, with room to grow to 24. David Sacks, Trump’s AI and crypto czar, and White House tech advisor Michael Kratsios will co-chair it.
Why These Four Matter
This isn’t a random selection. Each pick represents a major pillar of the AI industry:
- Mark Zuckerberg (Meta CEO): running one of the largest open-source AI programs in the world with Llama models
- Jensen Huang (Nvidia CEO): his company makes the GPUs that power virtually every AI training run on the planet
- Larry Ellison (Oracle CTO & Executive Chairman): Oracle is building massive AI data center infrastructure
- Sergey Brin (Google cofounder): back in the trenches at Google, reportedly writing code for Gemini
Trump had a similar panel during his first term, but it didn’t feature this level of tech industry concentration. The shift is telling. AI policy has moved from a niche concern to a central pillar of economic and national security strategy.
The Political Context
These appointments don’t happen in a vacuum. Trump has spent the past year pushing to block states from regulating AI, and filling his advisory panel with AI industry leaders signals that direction won’t change.
The ties run deeper than policy alignment. Meta has donated to Trump and is currently fighting legal battles over children’s safety on its platforms. Ellison’s Oracle was the backbone of the TikTok divestiture deal. Both Zuckerberg and Brin attended Trump’s 2025 inauguration.
What stands out here is how transactional these relationships have become. Tech executives who once kept Washington at arm’s length are now actively seeking seats at the table, and the administration is happy to oblige.
What This Means for AI Policy
With industry leaders directly advising the president, expect a few things:
- Light-touch regulation: The panel’s composition strongly favors industry self-governance over strict federal oversight
- Pro-infrastructure push: Ellison and Huang both benefit from accelerated data center and chip manufacturing policies
- Open-source vs. closed debates: Zuckerberg’s open-source stance at Meta could influence how the administration thinks about AI model access
According to the White House’s January announcement, PCAST will “advise the President on matters involving science, technology, education, and innovation policy,” including information related to “the American economy, the American worker, national and homeland security.”
The real question is whether this panel will serve as a genuine policy body or a formalized channel for industry lobbying. With the people now sitting on it, the AI companies shaping America’s future will also be the ones advising the government on how to regulate it.
More details are available in The Verge AI’s original reporting.