US President Donald Trump awarded Elon Musk the National Medal of Science - the country's highest scientific honor. The ceremony was held in Washington on October 8, and the award was presented in recognition of Musk's achievements in space flight, intelligent systems and communications.
During the event, Trump called the entrepreneur a "national treasure" and described him as "our modern-day Thomas Edison". The president said Musk has contributed to the development of American technology through his work at SpaceX and Tesla.
Three more technology leaders received the medal
The National Medal of Science was also awarded to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su.
Brin was honored for developing algorithms for searching and processing data. Huang's recognition is related to the development of graphics processors and their use for large-scale computing, and Su - for achievements in semiconductor engineering and high-performance computing.
Michael Dell and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation – the highest American honor in this field.
Award follows public conflict
The honor for Musk comes more than a year after his public conflict with Trump. In June 2025, the two entered into a heated argument over a tax and budget bill. A few days later, Musk apologized for some of his publications and admitted that they had “gone too far“.
By August 2026, relations between the two had returned to normal. They maintained regular contact and discussed artificial intelligence, China and international issues. The awarding of the medal confirms their public rapprochement after the conflict.
Sources: rbc.ru, apnews.com, aljazeera.com