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Donald Trump appoints Indian-American entrepreneur as senior policy advisor for AI
Former Microsoft employee and close ally of Elon Musk, Sriram Krishnan will help shape US AI policy under Trump's leadership.
Sriram Krishnan's career path took him to Facebook in 2013, where he led the company's product and business divisions. A brief tenure at Snapchat in 2016 preceded his move to Twitter (now X) in 2017, where he led several core consumer product teams. (Image source: LinkedIn)
US President-elect Donald Trump has officially named Sriram Krishnan, a former Microsoft executive and close aide to billionaire Elon Musk, as the Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence (AI), as per reports.
In a post shared on Truth Social, Trump expressed confidence that Krishnan, working closely with David Sacks, would play a pivotal role in ensuring America's continued dominance in AI. "Sriram will focus on ensuring continued American leadership in AI and help shape and coordinate AI policy across government," Trump wrote.
Krishnan, a seasoned veteran in the tech industry, holds a B.Tech in Information Technology from SRM Engineering College in Chennai, India.
He began his career at Microsoft in 2005, where he was a founding member of the Windows Azure team, working over there for six years.
His career path took him to Facebook in 2013, where he led the company's product and business divisions. A brief tenure at Snapchat in 2016 preceded his move to Twitter (now X) in 2017, where he led several core consumer product teams.
Krishnan’s entrepreneurial spirit extended beyond corporate roles. He later became a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a venture capital firm, while also investing and advising numerous high-profile companies, including Figma, Notion, Cameo, Coda, Scale.ai, SpaceX, and CRED.
His close relationship with Elon Musk deepened when he worked alongside the billionaire during Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in 2022.
In response to his new appointment, Krishnan expressed gratitude on X, stating, “I’m honored to be able to serve our country and ensure continued American leadership in AI. Thank you, Donald Trump, for this opportunity.”
Trump’s post also highlighted that Krishnan would be collaborating with David Sacks, former PayPal COO, who was recently named the White House Artificial Intelligence and Crypto Czar.
Krishnan, who is also a prominent figure in the podcasting world, co-hosts ‘The Aarthi and Sriram Show’ with his wife Aarthi Ramamurthy, an investor and product executive. The podcast has hosted a range of influential figures, including Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
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