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Sriram Krishnan
Indian-American investor (born 1984) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Sriram Krishnan (born 1984) is a top White House official,[2] currently serving as the Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence. He is one of the authors of the American "AI Action Plan" released in July, 2025.[3]
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As the leader of the United States' policy team regarding artificial intelligence, Krishnan plays "a significant role in shaping the administration’s approach to AI and driving measures to advance federal adoption of AI."[4] The role calls for removing barriers to AI adoption within the government, driving vendors toward solutions suitable for federal needs, designing sensible regulation of private-sector AI, and conducting "AI diplomacy".[4][5] He has stated a policy goal of "reinvigorating US dominance in emerging technologies," including AI.[6] He also represents the United States' interests in AI abroad, such as at the Paris AI Summit.[7]
Krishnan, a U.S. citizen born in India, is also a venture capitalist, podcaster, product manager and author. Early in his career, he led product teams at Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo!, Facebook, and Snap. In addition to his work as an investor and technologist, he and his wife, Aarthi Ramamurthy, rose to additional prominence in 2021 as podcast hosts.[8] He served as a general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and led its London office.[9][10] In 2022, Krishnan announced that he was working with Elon Musk on the rebuilding of Twitter following Musk's acquisition of the company.[11] On December 22, 2024, US president-elect Donald Trump announced that Krishnan would be Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence in his incoming administration.[12]
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Early life and education
Krishnan was born in Chennai, India,[13] in a middle-income family.[14] His life changed in the late 1990s when he managed to persuade his father to buy him a computer. As he still did not have internet access, Krishnan would buy coding books and practice coding basics every night. This prompted him to pursue a career in information technology.[15]
He earned his Bachelor of Technology in Information Technology from SRM University (2001–2005).[16] He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2016.[17]
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Career
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Early career
In 2007, he began working at Microsoft where he served as a program manager for Visual Studio. At Facebook, Krishnan built the Facebook Audience Network, a competitive platform to Google's ad technologies.[18][19][20] At Twitter, he led product and core user experience, driving a 20% annual user growth rate and launching a redesigned home page and events experience.[21][22][23]
Andreessen Horowitz
Krishnan was appointed a general partner of American venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz ("a16z") in February 2021.[24] He was anticipated to serve consumer and social markets, however he has also theorized on the impact of "deep tech" on society.[25][26][27]
In 2023 he was appointed to lead the firm's London office, its first non-US location.[9] The office is expected to serve Web3 investments as well as AI and other fields.[9][28] Krishnan announced that he would leave the firm at the end of 2024.[29]
Social media and AI
In 2022, various news media reported that Krishnan was assisting Elon Musk in the revamp of Twitter following Musk's takeover of the company.[11][30][31] Additional reports named Krishnan as the leading candidate for the role of CEO of the newly private company.[32][33]
Krishnan penned a 2023 New York Times opinion column regarding social media, AI, and related fields. He predicted a rise in the number and diversity of online spaces due to decentralization and platforms like Farcaster, Bluesky and Mastodon.[34]
Public office
In 2024, the Financial Times reported that Krishnan was active in international affairs, reintroducing Boris Johnson to Elon Musk, following Musk's nomination to the proposed Department of Government Efficiency.[35]
Krishnan was also reported as potentially leaving a16z at the end of the year to "be jumping into something I've wanted to spend [his] energy on," which was widely reported as being related to Musk's and Vivek Ramaswamy's work at DOGE. Others reported to be involved include Joe Lonsdale, Marc Andreesen, Bill Ackman, and Travis Kalanick.[36]
On December 22, 2024, US president-elect Donald Trump announced that he would be Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence in his incoming administration.[12] On February 6, 2025, Reuters reported that Krishnan would be accompanying Vice President Vance to the Paris AI Summit, a "major artificial intelligence" event later that month. Other members of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy would also be joining the event with around 100 other countries to "focus on AI's potential."[7]
Krishnan joined a U.S. technology policy delegation to the Middle East in advance of President Trump's visit in May 2025. Conducting "AI diplomacy," Krishnan negotiated the spread of U.S. AI technologies with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, as well as other means to strengthen bilateral trade in artificial intelligence technologies.[37][38][39] He explained that the goal of the diplomatic mission was that "we want American A.I. to spread."[38]
Krishnan, along with David Sacks and Michael Kratsios, were credited as authors of the American AI Action Plan released in July 2025. The plan is "the administration’s most significant policy directive" regarding artificial intelligence;[3] it calls for financing to support the global spread of American AI models and a policy to enforce neutrality in models.[40] The Washington Post referred to the plan as a "bold action to ensure that American AI remains at the cutting edge."[41] The AI Action Plan is a continuation of prior efforts to reduce barriers to U.S. production of AI systems and the removal of rules that were considered to hinder such growth.[3]
The Aarthi and Sriram Show and other media
In early 2021, Krishnan and his wife, Aarthi Ramamurthy, launched a Clubhouse talk show that "focuses on organic conversations on anything from startups to venture capitalism and cryptocurrencies."[42] An early appearance by Elon Musk on the Good Time Show was described as the first show that "broke Clubhouse"[43] by rapidly exceeding the limit of 5,000 simultaneous users. The desire to interact with a larger community led to a variety of later innovations to allow streaming and replaying of Clubhouse chats. On that episode, Elon Musk grilled Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev regarding the GameStop trading controversy.[44] As of December 2021, the show had over 187,000 subscribers, plus 735,000 subscribers between Krishnan and Ramamurthy's personal Clubhouse accounts.[45][13] Other guests have included Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Diane von Fürstenberg, Tony Hawk, MrBeast,[46][42] and A.R. Rahman.[45][47]
In 2022, the Good Time Show moved to YouTube.[48] It then evolved to a podcasting format under the name The Aarthi and Sriram Show, with both audio and video content.[49] The Hollywood Reporter reported that the podcast had received more than 1 million downloads by early 2023.[49]
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Personal life
Krishnan is married to Aarthi Ramamurthy, co-host of The Aarthi and Sriram Show (formerly the Good Time Show) and a serial entrepreneur. They met in college in 2003 through a Yahoo! chat room related to a coding project and began dating in 2006 and eloped in 2010.[13]
References
External links
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