Trump’s ‘golden age’ push hands top science honours to big tech. Will it work?
Por Orange Wang — South China Morning Post – News feed
Advertisement US-China relations China Diplomacy Trump’s ‘golden age’ push hands top science honours to big tech. Will it work?
Top medals for big tech chiefs like Musk and Huang signal shift to market-driven research but Chinese analysts doubt viability of model
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Orange Wang Published: 6:00am, 14 Oct 2026
The White House’s bid for a US “golden age” of science should put China on alert, Chinese analysts have warned, but they remain sceptical as to whether President Donald Trump’s alliance with Silicon Valley billionaires can pull it off.
This comes as Trump, in another arguably unconventional move, handed the country’s highest science and engineering awards to top American tech bosses.
Elon Musk, head of electric-vehicle maker Tesla and aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, received the National Medal of Science, the US’ top scientific honour. Joining him in receiving the award at the “Science: A New Golden Age Summit” in Washington on Thursday were leading chipmaking chiefs Jensen Huang of Nvidia and Lisa Su of Advanced Micro Devices, as well as Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Select Voice Select Speed 0.8x 0.9x 1.0x 1.1x 1.2x 1.5x 1.75x 00:00 00:00 1x AI-generated voice
