David Sacks announced his resignation as the White House’s AI and cryptocurrency czar on Bloomberg Television on March 26, 2026. He described the change as a natural result of a federal employment rule that restricts special government employees to 130 days of service in a twelve-month period. He was composed, articulate, and almost noticeably composed about it. His days were over. The time ran out. Nothing more to observe. The way it was framed was neat, and when a departure is presented that way in Washington, it usually prompts a second glance.
Sacks became the first person to hold both the AI and cryptocurrency portfolios concurrently within a White House administration when he was appointed to his dual role in December 2024, at the beginning of Trump’s second term. He came to Silicon Valley with a lot of credibility, having co-founded Craft Ventures in 2017, founded Yammer, an enterprise social networking platform that Microsoft acquired, and founded PayPal in 1999 alongside Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Reid Hoffman.
| Full name | David Sacks — venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and technology policy advisor |
|---|---|
| White House role | AI and Cryptocurrency Czar (Special Government Employee); appointed December 2024, first to hold dual role |
| Duration in role | 130 days — the maximum permitted for Special Government Employees under U.S. federal rules |
| Departure date | Announced March 26, 2026; transitioning to co-chair of President’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology (PCAST) |
| PCAST co-chair | Alongside Michael Kratsios (OSTP Director); 13-member panel includes Jensen Huang, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison |
| Career background | PayPal (1999, with Musk, Thiel, Hoffman); founded Yammer; co-founded Craft Ventures (2017) |
| Key policy action | Oversaw loosening of Biden-era restrictions on AI chip exports to China |
| Financial disclosure | Sold over $200 million in digital asset-related investments before taking government role (disclosed March 2025) |
| Notable statement | Called for U.S. to “declare victory and get out” of Iran war — rare dissent within Trump administration |
| Reference source | CNBC — David Sacks says his time as Trump’s crypto and AI czar has ended |
Additionally, he was a well-known voice on the All In podcast, which for years served as a sort of unofficial policy journal for the tech industry’s libertarian wing. Sacks was a logical choice for Trump when he needed someone in the West Wing who could speak Silicon Valley fluently. He soon gained the president’s ear in addition to the industry’s.
There is some serious disagreement about what he accomplished in those 130 days. On the visible ledger, his term was marked by the relaxation of Biden-era restrictions on shipments of AI chips to China. This was a major change in policy that the semiconductor industry had been advocating for, and it was heavily criticized by national security hawks who saw the relaxation of export controls as a strategic compromise.
In the last weeks of his tenure, he oversaw the early development of Trump’s AI framework, which sought to establish the administration’s stance on both foreign competition and domestic AI regulation. Those seem like significant contributions for 130 days. It’s unclear if the results will remain the same or if they will be subtly changed as the political landscape changes.
All of this was preceded by a financial disclosure that was a complex footnote in and of itself. Prior to assuming his government position, Sacks sold more than $200 million in investments related to digital assets, according to a White House memo published in March 2025. Both legally and technically, the disclosure was complete. However, the optics were never totally comfortable for a crypto czar whose portfolio included influencing federal policy toward the very asset class he had just profited greatly from. It’s possible that the divestment was handled properly and that his prior positions had no bearing on the subsequent policy decisions. It’s also possible that questions will persist for some time due to the proximity of those facts.
A few weeks prior to his departure, Sacks publicly declared that the United States should “declare victory and get out” of the Iran war. This was the most out-of-character—and possibly most illuminating—moment. For a senior administration official, it was a remarkably direct statement, especially in a White House that had typically maintained a more hawkish public stance on the conflict. It’s really unclear if that remark had anything to do with when he left. The 130-day rule continued to be the official justification, and there is no evidence in the public domain to the contrary. However, a reporter tends to keep the order of events in the back of their mind.
Co-chairing the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology with Michael Kratsios of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is his next official position. The thirteen-person panel includes Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Oracle executive chair Larry Ellison — a grouping that represents, in its own way, a remarkable concentration of private-sector technology power in a single federal advisory body. Sacks characterized it as a chance to offer suggestions on a wider range of technological subjects, not just AI. He proposed that the council research issues collectively before formally advising the administration.
As the change takes place, it seems as though Sacks is shifting from a position with direct operational influence to one with possibly greater reach but less immediate leverage. Depending on how seriously the administration takes PCAST’s recommendations and whether Sacks is more successful in influencing policy from the advisory room than he was navigating the day-to-day conflict of the West Wing, that could be a promotion, a lateral move, or something less clear. It will take more than 130 days for the answer to that to become apparent.