Who is Indian-American Entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan, Trump Pick for Senior AI Advisor Role?

Washington: As US President-elect Donald Trump sets the stage for his Presidency, he has named Indian-American entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan as senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence. Sriram Krishnan has joined the list of top officials in the upcoming Trump 2.0 administration.

Notably, Krishnan is not the first Indian-American person to be all set to join a top post at White House. While making the announcement on social media, Trump wrote, “Sriram Krishnan will serve as the Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.” Besides this, Trump announced a number of other appointments on artificial intelligence or AI.

Who is Sriram Krishnan?

Krishnan is a venture capitalist and an author. Having led product teams at leading giants, including Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo!, Facebook and Snap in the past, Krishnan will work along with David O. Sacks who will guide the administration's policies for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.

According to Trump, Sriram started his career at Microsoft as a founding member of Windows Azure.

Sriram Krishnan's Personal Life

Sriram was born in Chennai to a middle-income Tamil family. He tied knot with Aarthi Ramamurthy. The couple, often referred to as a "tech power duo," resides in London, as per media reports. 

Sriram Krishnan's Education

His passion for technology peaked in the late 1990s when he learned coding himself despite not having internet access. The Indian-origin entrepreneur graduated in 2005 with a degree in Information Technology at SRM Engineering College, Anna University, Tamil Nadu.

Sriram Krishnan's Carrier

Krishnan boasts of an illustrious career at above mentioned leading tech giants. At Facebook, he is credited with building the Facebook Audience Network, a key competitor to Google’s ad technologies, and at X (previously Twitter) he drove major product innovations, achieving significant user growth.

Earlier in 2021, he joined Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) as a general partner. Here, his area of work centered around investments in emerging technologies like Web3 and AI.

Link With Musk

Later in 2022, he got attention after he worked with Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk on X's transformation following Musk's acquisition of the social media platform. His insights into AI and social media trends have made him a thought leader, further boosting his reputation.

Besides his close links with technology, Krishnan co-hosts The Aarthi and Sriram Show with his wife. The podcast which features high-profile guests like Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, has become a hit with millions of downloads.