Trump to honour Elon Musk, Nvidia's Jensen Huang with US' top science and technology medals

US President Donald Trump will present the nation's highest honours for scientific and technological achievement, the White House said on Thursday.

Among those set to receive the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation are some of the biggest names in the technology industry, including SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell.

The medals recognise scientific and technological achievement, according to the White House.

Musk founded SpaceX, the rocket company behind the Falcon launch vehicles and Starlink satellite internet network. He is also the CEO of Tesla, the electric vehicle maker. 

SpaceX has emerged as one of the world's most valuable private companies, while Tesla is one of the largest electric vehicle makers. Musk has also founded or backed other technology ventures, including xAI and Neuralink.

Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and has been its CEO since the company was established. Nvidia's development of graphics processing units, or GPUs, helped transform computer graphics and later made the company central to the development of modern artificial intelligence.

Nvidia has since become one of the world's most valuable companies as demand for AI chips has surged. Its market value was about $5.45 trillion as of September 24, according to Fortune.