Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stood beside President Donald Trump on Thursday to accept the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, just hours after Vice President JD Vance announced that Microsoft had been suspended from the PERM program employers use to sponsor foreign workers for green cards.
The ceremony at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, part of the "Science: A New Golden Age" summit, also saw Trump present the National Medal of Science to Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su. Dell founder Michael Dell received the technology medal alongside Nadella. It marked the first time Trump personally handed out the honors in either of his terms.
"Our modern-day Thomas Edison"
Trump reserved his highest praise for Musk, calling him "our modern-day Thomas Edison," an embrace that capped the two men’s reconciliation after their bitter public falling-out in 2025. "We live in an age of American wonders and technological marvels, and with the help of the brilliant men and women here today, we will always be on top," Trump said, telling the honorees they would "go down in the annals of history as being great."
Built by immigrants
The stage was also a showcase of immigrant success. Five of the six honorees were born abroad: Nadella in India, Musk in South Africa, Brin in Moscow, and Huang and Su in Taiwan. "I was an immigrant, and my parents brought us here to pursue the American dream," Huang told NBC News as he walked through the venue with his parents.
The juxtaposition was hard to miss on a day when the administration accused Microsoft of laying off American workers while relying on H-1B visas. The summit itself focused on artificial intelligence, nuclear energy, quantum computing and so-called metascience, with $2.4 billion in AI computing pledges announced.
