Silicon Valley’s tech titans were front and center at Donald Trump’s inauguration — an indication of the influence the industry is set to wield over the next four years. 

But beyond the inauguration optics, Silicon Valley power players are officially embedded in the administration and unofficially advising the new president.

Here’s a rundown of the techies in Trump’s orbit as he takes the mantle of power this week. 

A Marine Corps veteran and author of the bestselling book “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance once called himself a “never-Trump guy.” But the lawyer-turned-investor who spent two years in the Senate before being selected as Trump’s running mate is now full MAGA. Vance worked in venture capital for only six years, but his Silicon Valley connections run deep: During his time at Mithril Capital, he became close to tech kingmaker Peter Thiel, who donated $15 million to his Senate campaign and introduced him to Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2021 . 

The world’s richest man now has a seat at the center of American power after shelling out more than $250 million to Trump’s campaign. Musk is Trump’s “first buddy,” in addition to being at the helm of the newly created DOGE and six multibillion-dollar companies, including X, Tesla, and SpaceX. Musk’s fingerprints are expected to be all over Trump’s foreign and domestic policy decisions, just as they were during the transition, all while he deploys an army of Silicon Valley recruits to restructure the government through DOGE. 

One of San Francisco’s loudest and proudest conservatives, Sacks will serve as Trump’s right-hand man on AI and cryptocurrency. A founder and partner at venture capital firm Craft Ventures and a member of the so-called PayPal Mafia, the influential alumni network from the payments company that includes Thiel and Musk, Sacks is well known in Silicon Valley as one of the hosts of the “All-In” tech and politics podcast. He burst into Trump world last summer when he hosted a glitzy fundraiser that brought in a whopping $13 million from ultra-wealthy Silicon Valley conservatives. 

An entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Krishnan is a techie through and through. He led product teams at Microsoft, Twitter, and Facebook before becoming a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Krishnan became a Silicon Valley brand name during the pandemic, when he started a podcast interviewing tech heavyweights alongside his wife, Aarthi Ramamurthy. The appointment of Krishnan, a naturalized citizen from India, unleashed a flood of anti-Indian racism from MAGA world that was compounded by his pro-immigration views. Krishnan has a close relationship with Musk from working at X and said he’ll be working closely with Sacks in the Trump administration. 

Helberg burst onto the scene as a Silicon Valley GOP power player after years of working in politics and raising money for Democrats. He serves on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a congressional group that monitors trade between the two countries, and as senior adviser to Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp. Helberg is married to Keith Rabois, managing director of venture capital firm Khosla Ventures. (OpenAI CEO Sam Altman officiated their wedding ceremony in 2018.) Helberg said he “fell in love” with Trump in early 2024 on a visit to Mar-a-Lago, where the two bonded over the risks of overregulating AI and the importance of Silicon Valley developing military technology. 

Isaacman is a billionaire who made his money from payment processing company Shift4 Payments, which he founded at age 16. He’s also the founder of Draken International, which provides fighter aircraft for contract services to the U.S. and NATO forces. The tech mogul made headlines last year when he conducted the first private spacewalk aboard a SpaceX spacecraft. Isaacman is a friend of Musk, and his payments company has extensive financial ties to SpaceX. NASA administrators are usually scientists, engineers, or public servants, making Isaacman an unorthodox choice for the job. If confirmed, he will oversee billions of dollars in contracts awarded to SpaceX and will be expected to develop NASA’s partnerships with private space companies. 

Kratios has ping-ponged between senior government positions and the upper echelons of Silicon Valley. He worked at Thiel’s family office for seven years before serving as chief technology officer in the first Trump administration. After a stint as undersecretary of Defense, he became managing director of San Francisco-based Scale AI, a company backed by Thiel’s venture capital firm Founders Fund. Kratios, who oversaw tech policy on Trump’s transition team, will coordinate science policy across the government.

While Thiel does not have an official government appointment, he has a direct line to the president, vice president, and every techie with an inner circle government position. The tech billionaire, who co-founded PayPal, Palantir Technologies, Founders Fund, and a host of other investment firms, was the sole Silicon Valley leader to support Trump during his first presidential campaign (he even spoke at the RNC) and presidency. Now, Thiel is the godfather of the powerful Silicon Valley network that has come to dominate government nominees and appointments in the Trump administration. Case in point: Thiel hosted an inauguration party at his mansion in Washington, D.C., that was attended by the crème de la crème of the tech world. 

Lonsdale has emerged as a Republican megadonor on par with Musk and Thiel, with whom he worked at PayPal. He co-founded Palantir with Thiel, then co-founded a wealth management technology company and a venture capital firm. Lonsdale helped create the pro-Trump America PAC and is one of the tech moguls advising the presidential transition and DOGE. 

Andreessen is one of the pioneers of the internet browser and the co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which has invested in Facebook, Airbnb, SpaceX, and dozens of crypto and AI companies. The former Democrat has been recruiting candidates for positions across the Trump administration and advising DOGE as a self-proclaimed “unpaid intern.”

A USC dropout turned venture capitalist, Hering is a confidant of Musk and an investor in his companies. When he isn’t tending to his ultra-exclusive club atop Salesforce Tower, Hering is traveling as a fixer for Musk’s startups. He gave $500,000 to America PAC and spent time in Florida helping Trump’s transition team. 

A partner at Sequoia Capital, Maguire manages the venture capital firm’s stakes in X, SpaceX, and Musk’s tunneling startup, the Boring Company. Maguire, a loud and controversial rising star at Sequoia known for his pro-Israel stance and X posts in defense of Musk, has been helping out with the transition.