Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Receives National Medal of Science

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang received the National Medal of Science from President Donald Trump on Oct. 8, recognizing work that helped turn the graphics processing unit into a general-purpose computing architecture for scientific computing and artificial intelligence.

Trump presented the medal during the White House’s “Science: A New Golden Age” summit. The event placed Nvidia’s semiconductor and software contributions within a broader administration push to accelerate AI-driven scientific research.

The summit involved more than $6 billion in combined investments across government, industry, academia and philanthropy.

Huang’s official citation recognized innovations in processor design and software that advanced massively parallel computation. It described the work as powering breakthroughs in scientific computing and “super intelligence.”

“Each of these medalists has transformed their field or industry, laying the foundations for technologies we already can barely imagine living without,” Michael Kratsios, assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said in the announcement.

Elon Musk, Sergey Brin and Lisa Su also received the National Medal of Science. Michael Dell and Satya Nadella received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

Established in 1963, the National Medal of Science recognizes outstanding contributions to science in service of the United States. The medal has recognized 529 scientists and engineers since its establishment.

Huang’s award follows Trump’s planned awards for four technology leaders, which included Huang, Su, Musk and Brin.