US President-elect Donald Trump on Monday appointed Indian-origin Sriram Krishnan the senior policy advisor for AI at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Krishnan was until recently a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a venture capital firm that has funded several of the major tech and crypto firms such as Coinbase, Buzzfeed, Ripple, GitHub, and Opensea.
Trump in a statement on X said that Krishnan will "help shape and coordinate AI policy across government, working with the president’s council of advisors on science and technology."
Krishnan will be working with ex-PayPal COO David Sacks, who has been tapped as crypto and AI 'czar' of the upcoming Trump administration.
"I'm honored to be able to serve our country and ensure continued American leadership in AI," Krishnan wrote in response.
Born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Krishnan did his BTech from SRM Engineering College under Anna University, and left for the US in 2005 at the age of 21.
He joined Microsoft in 20027 as program manager for Visual Studio. He then moved to Facebook and from there was poached by Snap.
He and his wife, Aarthi Ramamurthy, hosted the podcast "The Aarthi and Sriram Show," then called the "Good Time Show."
Krishnan is said to be close to Elon Musk, who he helped rebuild Twitter after its acquisition in 2022.
Musk, the billionaire owner of X, co-leads the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a policy group formed to cut federal spending.
Krishnan was appointed a general partner at a16z in February 2021, and was selected to lead its London office, its first non-US location, in 2023. He left the firm in late November.
Sriram Krishnan. Image Source: TechCrunch
