US President Donald Trump presented the National Medals of Science and the National Medals of Technology and Innovation on Thursday, October 8, honoring six prominent leaders for their contributions to science, computing, and technology.
Labelled by the White House as “America’s greatest living innovators,” the cohort includes some of the world’s most influential business executives and technology pioneers. Notably, five of the six recipients are foreign-born immigrants who relocated to the United States before building their careers in the American tech sector.
The Medal Recipients and Their Origins
The National Medals represent the highest honors bestowed by the United States government for achievements in science, engineering, and technology.
- Elon Musk (Born in Pretoria, South Africa, 1971): The co-founder of Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI was awarded the National Medal of Science for extraordinary engineering achievements in space exploration, intelligent systems, and satellite communications.
- Sergey Brin (Born in Moscow, Russia, 1973): The Google co-founder received the National Medal of Science for developing foundational search and data-processing algorithms that transformed global information access.
- Jensen Huang (Born in Tainan, Taiwan, 1963): The Nvidia co-founder and CEO was awarded the National Medal of Science for advancing graphics processing units (GPUs) into parallel computing architectures powering modern AI and supercomputers.
- Dr. Lisa Su (Born in Tainan, Taiwan, 1969): The CEO of AMD received the National Medal of Science for lifetime leadership in semiconductor engineering and chiplet-based processor design.
- Satya Nadella (Born in Hyderabad, India, 1967): The Chairman and CEO of Microsoft was presented with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation for driving Microsoft’s transition into cloud computing and building hyperscale AI infrastructure.
- Michael Dell (Born in Houston, Texas, US, 1965): The founder and CEO of Dell Technologies was the sole US-born recipient, receiving the National Medal of Technology and Innovation for expanding enterprise and personal computing accessibility.
A Combined Net Worth Reaching Trillions
Together, the six awardees represent some of the highest concentrations of personal wealth and market capitalization in global business history. According to Forbes estimates, their personal fortunes range from AMD’s Lisa Su ($3.4 billion) and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella ($1.4 billion) to Nvidia’s Jensen Huang ($199.5 billion), Google’s Sergey Brin ($262.7 billion), Dell’s Michael Dell ($278.3 billion), and Tesla/SpaceX’s Elon Musk ($990.9 billion).
The ceremony highlights the central role immigrant founders and executives continue to play in driving high-tech industries and maintaining American competitiveness in global scientific innovation.
