David Sacks walked into the Trump White House last January as America’s first-ever AI and crypto czar, armed with a Silicon Valley network, a free-market philosophy, and a mandate to drag federal technology policy into the 21st century. Thirteen months later, he’s walking out of that specific role — not because he stumbled, not because he was pushed, but because federal law says 130 days is the limit for a special government employee, and he used every one of them. What he’s walking into is something arguably more consequential: co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, a body that now reads less like a government committee and more like a who’s-who of the companies that are actively building the future.
Sacks confirmed the transition in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday, March 26, stating plainly, “In the first year of the Trump administration, I had a role as a special government employee. I had 130 days. We’ve now used up that time.” He framed the move to PCAST not as a step back but as an expansion of scope. “I think moving forward as co-chair of PCAST, I can now make recommendations on not just AI but an expanded range of technology topics,” he said. “So yes, this is how I’ll be involved moving forward.”