USA Trump wants to entrust Musk advisor with AI and cryptocurrencies
US President-elect Donald Trump wants to appoint the right-wing venture capitalist David Sacks as government commissioner for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies. Both areas are "critical to America's future competitiveness", Trump announced via his online mouthpiece Truth Social. Sacks - a confidant of tech billionaire Elon Musk - has the task of making the USA the clear world market leader in the AI and digital currency business.
06.12.2024, 07:31
SDA
As a government commissioner, Sacks will "protect free speech on the internet and move us away from the biased attitudes and censorship of big tech companies", Trump continued. He will also create a legal framework for the crypto industry "so that it gets the clarity it wants and can flourish in the US". Accordingly, Sacks will also head the future president's advisory committee responsible for science and technology.
Bitcoin investors in party mood since Trump's election victory
Since Trump's election victory on November 5, Bitcoin has gained enormously as investors hope that he will bring crypto-friendly regulation to the industry. While the oldest and best-known digital currency was still trading at around 70,000 US dollars before the election, it temporarily broke through the 100,000 dollar barrier for the first time on Thursday night. The party atmosphere in the crypto scene had previously been fueled by Trump's announcement to install digital currency proponent Paul Atkins as head of the powerful US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
"For 25 years, David Sacks was an extremely successful entrepreneur and investor who built and financed some of the biggest corporate icons in Silicon Valley," Trump wrote. During the early days of the now world-renowned US payment service provider Paypal, Sacks was Chief Executive Officer. He later founded the software company Yammer - which programmed a kind of in-house Facebook for companies - and sold it to industry giant Microsoft for USD 1.2 billion in 2012. Most recently, he was also the co-host of a tech podcast.
Trump also announced other personnel decisions. Probably the most significant in view of the trade conflict with China: David Perdue. Trump wants to make the Republican the new US ambassador to China. The 74-year-old represented the state of Georgia in the US Senate from 2015 to 2021. Before his political career, he held various management positions in business, including CEO of Dollar General and Reebok.
