The National Medal of Science is given annually to scientists and engineers for major contributions in their fields.

United States President Donald Trump has awarded the country’s most prestigious honours in science and engineering to executives from top technology firms including SpaceX, Alphabet, Microsoft and Nvidia.

On Thursday, Trump presented the National Medal of Science to billionaire SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Lisa Su of the semiconductor firm AMD.

Two more recipients received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation: Michael Dell of Dell Technologies and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

At the award ceremony, Trump credited the honourees with “helping pioneer an incredible future for America”.

“Because of these people here, we will always be on top. No one else can compete with us,” Trump said.

Five of the six people receiving medals on Thursday were born outside the US. Four are among the 10 wealthiest people in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The award ceremony took place hours after the Trump administration announced it was suspending Microsoft and other top tech companies from using the H-1B visa system, which allows companies to hire skilled foreign workers and put them on a path towards permanent residency in the US.

The suspension, officials said, was due to the companies allegedly using the system in a fraudulent manner.

The medal ceremony was the latest example of what critics see as an increasingly close relationship between Silicon Valley tech executives and the second Trump administration.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/8/trump-gives-top-us-science-awards-to-elon-musk-and-other-tech-executives?traffic_source=rss