Podcaster David Sacks cinches top crypto job in Trump Administration

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President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday evening announced his pick for the new AI and crypto czar position: David Sacks.

Sacks, one of Trump’s most vocal and influential supporters in Silicon Valley, is closely tied with administration insiders, including Vice President-elect JD Vance and tech billionaire Elon Musk. Vance has called Sacks one of his “closest friends in the tech world.”

Sacks made a name for himself at PayPal — co-founded by Musk, Peter Thiel and others — in the early 2000s. The three are all members of the so-called “PayPal mafia,” a group of former employees and founders who went on to create and invest in major tech companies like YouTube and OpenAI.

Sacks then went south for a brief stint in Hollywood, during which he produced Thank You for Smoking, a satirical comedy based on the novel by Christopher Buckley.

When he returned to Northern California he founded Yammer, a workplace communications platform later acquired by Microsoft, and venture capital firm Craft Ventures. And then (in what should come as a shock to no one), he started a podcast during the Covid pandemic. “All-In” is co-hosted by fellow VCs Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis and David Friedberg.

“David Sacks is the very best of America — a successful entrepreneur, a principled free speech absolutist and a brilliant technologist,” Palihapitiya wrote on X Thursday. “He will make sure the US stays at the forefront of AI and crypto — two of the most consequential technological movements in history.”

So there’s his resume. As for this new job, Trump said Thursday Sacks will “guide policy for the administration in [AI] and cryptocurrency, two areas critical to the future of American competitiveness.” His objective? Make “America the clear global leader in both areas.”

Sounds like a tall order.

On the crypto side, Sacks is expected to be the driving force behind what the Trump Administration has promised will be a new era of digital asset regulation. Trump added on Thursday that Sacks will be working on a “legal framework” for the industry that will help provide the “clarity” many execs have been requesting.

It’s unclear yet whether Sacks will have a staff of advisers, but we expect he will. I’d imagine stakeholders in both the crypto and AI industries are already vying for a seat at Sacks’ table.

As for the AI-crypto combo, the decision to make one czar in charge of policy recommendations isn’t shocking, but I’ll be curious how it plays out. These two facets of the broader technology sector are often lumped together, especially as both continue to grow and raise new regulatory questions. But they are two distinct industries nonetheless. We’ll be watching.

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