President-elect Donald Trump named former PayPal Holdings executive and Silicon Valley venture capitalist David Sacks as his artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency czar. In addition to appointing a new AI czar, Trump is expected to ease artificial intelligence and crypto regulation.
Further, Sacks is an associate of Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who has emerged as a key advisor to Trump.
Sacks will serve as the "White House AI & Crypto Czar," Trump said on his social-media platform Truth Social late Thursday.
"In this important role, David will guide policy for the administration in artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, two areas critical to the future of American competitiveness," Trump posted.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin on Thursday ballooned to above $100,000 for the first time in its 15 year history.
Meanwhile, Sacks heads venture-capital firm Craft Ventures.
Between 1999 and 2002, Sacks was the chief operating officer of PayPal, whose founders included Musk and Peter Thiel.
Elon Musk Takes Big Role In Trump Transition
Also, Musk has been appointed to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the mandate of which is to streamline government bureaucracy.
Also, Musk recently sued startup OpenAI and Microsoft. Musk claims OpenAI's plans to convert from a nonprofit organization to a for-profit company are illegal.
Microsoft is the biggest investor in generative AI leader OpenAI, having spent some $14 billion on the startup. But Microsoft stock has gained only 12% in 2024 vs. the S&P 500's 26% gain.
Follow Reinhardt Krause on Twitter @reinhardtk_tech for updates on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and cloud computing.
