Zenefits CEO David Sacks speaks on the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, Calif.
Paul Chinn | San Francisco Chronicle | Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images
Enterprise investor and podcaster David Sacks will join the Trump administration because the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar,” President-elect Donald Trump announced on Truth Social on Thursday.
Sacks will guide the administration’s policies for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, Trump wrote. A few of that work includes making a legal framework for crypto, in addition to leading a presidential council of advisors on science and technology.
“David will give attention to making America the clear global leader in each areas,” Trump wrote. “He’ll safeguard Free Speech online, and steer us away from Big Tech bias and censorship.”
The appointment signals that the second Trump administration is rewarding Silicon Valley figures who supported his campaign. It also indicates that the administration will push for policies that cryptocurrency entrepreneurs generally support.
Sacks became a serious Trump booster earlier this yr, hosting a fundraiser for the then-Republican nominee at his San Francisco mansion. Tickets sold for $50,000 a head, with a $300,000 tier that included perks like a photograph with Trump.
It was a stark change of tone for Sacks, who was sharply critical of Trump after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Sacks said on an episode of his All-In podcast soon after that Trump was “clearly” answerable for the events of Jan. 6, and that he had “disqualified himself from being a candidate at a national level.”
In July, Sacks spoke on the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Sacks is a enterprise capitalist and entrepreneur who sold Yammer, to Microsoft for $1.2 billion in 2012. He’s also affiliated with the “PayPal mafia,” an unofficial club of distinguished technology figures and investors, including Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, who worked at PayPal within the Nineteen Nineties.
In recent times, Sacks has been best known for hosting the All-In podcast alongside fellow investors Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, and David Friedberg. In his post, Trump called it the “top podcast in Tech, where he and his friends discuss economic, political and social issues.”
