Who Is Sriram Krishnan? Donald Trump's Pick As Senior Policy Advisor On AI

US President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Indian-American entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan as senior White House policy advisor on Artificial Intelligence. In a series of appointments announced on his social media channel TruthSocial, Trump said he had picked Krishnan for the role. Trump has already made several key appointments in his government, which will come into effect after his swearing-in at the White House next month. 

“Sriram Krishnan will serve as Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy,” he said.

The President-elect further noted that Krishnan would work closely with David Sacks, who Trump earlier appointed as the White House A.I. & Crypto Czar.

“Working closely with David Sacks, Sriram will focus on ensuring continued American leadership in AI, and help shape and coordinate A.I. policy across Government, including working with the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Sriram started his career at Microsoft as a founding member of Windows Azure,” he said.

Following his appointment, Krishnan thanked Trump and said on X, “ I'm honoured to be able to serve our country and ensure continued American leadership in AI working closely with @DavidSacks.”

Sriram Krishnan is an engineer and an investor. According to his LinkedIn profile, Krishnan previously led various product teams in companies like Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo!, Facebook, and Snap.

Krishnan, a graduate of SRM Valliammai Engineering College in Kattankulathur, Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, started his career at Microsoft where he worked on various APIs and services for Windows Azure. During this stint, he also authored the book 'Programming Windows Azure' for O'Reilly.

Krishnan joined Facebook in 2013, where he played a key role in scaling the mobile app download ads product/business and created the Facebook Audience Network.

He then moved to SnapChat’s parent company Snap Inc. where he led a series of revenue product and monetisation efforts, as well as created Snap's Direct Response business. 

Krishnan worked at Twitter (now X) till 2019.  He shared a close relationship with Elon Musk and also worked on restructuring the platform post the acquisition by the billionaire. 

In 2020, Krishnan became a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz where he worked on many investments in AI, consumer and crypto. 

Krishnan also acts as an advisor at the Indian fintech firm Cred.

He is also known for co-hosting the podcast The Aarthi and Sriram Show alongside his wife, Aarthi Ramamurthy.