Trump Appoints Indian-American Sriram Krishnan as Senior Policy Advisor for AI

US President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Sriram Krishnan, an Indian-American former venture capitalist, as the senior policy advisor for artificial intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Krishnan, an Elon Musk aide, will help shape AI policy across government, including working with the President's council of advisors on science and technology. 

“I'm honoured to be able to serve our country and ensure continued American leadership in AI working closely with David Sacks,” Krishnan shared on X. 

Prior to this, Krishnan drove investments in consumer AI and crypto at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and engaged with global stakeholders on AI policy. He has also worked with Twitter, Meta, and Snap. According to Trump’s post, Krishnan began his career as one of the founding members of Microsoft’s Windows Azure.

Earlier this month, Sacks was appointed as the United States’ first artificial intelligence and crypto czar. Both Sacks and Krishnan are expected to work closely with Musk, who will head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the Trump administration.

In 2022, he rose to prominence for working with Musk and Sacks on reshaping X following its acquisition. He, along with his wife Aarthi Ramamurthy, co-hosts The Aarthi and Sriram Show. 

Many in the VC and AI circles congratulated Krishnan on his new role, including xAI Founder Elon Musk, a16z Partner Marc Andreeson, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, OpenAI CPO Kevin Weil, among others.  

“Sriram has been consistently thoughtful about AI policy, specifically the importance of promoting open source. His working with David Sacks on AI will be good for innovation and the US,” shared Andrew Ng, co-founder at Coursera and DeepLearning.AI

As an Indian-American immigrant, Krishnan has been vocalabout highly skilled immigration into America. He completed his education in India, graduating in 2005 with a degree in IT from SRM Engineering College, Anna University, Tamil Nadu.

Interestingly, along with Krishnan, Trump has announced several other appointments.

Emil Michael, former Chief Business Officer at Uber, was nominated as the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. Former Managing Partner at a16z Scott Kupor was also nominated as the Director of the Office of Personnel Management.