Former Andreesen Horowitz (a16z) General Partner Sriram Krishnan has been picked by incoming President Donald Trump to serve as a key AI advisor.
Trump late Sunday Eastern Time announced Krishnan would serve as Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The role would see Krishnan work closely with David Sachs, who was earlier this month named the AI and crypto czar for the incoming Trump administration, as well as the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Sriram has been a key figure in the cryptocurrency and web3 figure in recent years, where he alongside fellow a16z General Partner Chris Dixon, identified and nurtured many promising startups.
Prior to that, Sriram has had stints at Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter after he started his career at Microsoft, working on Windows Azure.
Sriram also helped Elon Musk, after the world’s richest person purchased Twitter and rebranded it as X, “temporarily.”
This assumes significance as Musk is now leading the “Department of Government Efficiency” or DOGE for the Trump administration and is one of the key allies to the incoming president.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO congratulated Krishnan on the new role following the announcement, and could have played a role in advising the appointment, given his history of working with Krishnan and his interest in bringing in prominent technocrats to the government.
This also marks a rare event where a first-generation immigrant is appointment to such a key role in the U.S. federal government. Krishnan was born in India and attended Anna University’s SRM Easwari Engineering College in Chennai.