He is officially chair of President Donald Trump's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
However, in the White House he is referred to as the AI and crypto tsar, there to guide the president through the technology revolutions in which the United States play a central role.
"I am grateful we have him," OpenAI boss Sam Altman said in a post on X.
"While Americans bicker, our rivals are studying David's every move," billionaire Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff chimed in.
Those supportive posts responded to a New York Times investigation highlighting Sacks's investments in technology companies benefiting from White House AI support.
Sacks dismissed the report as an "anti-truth" hit job by liberal media.
But the episode confirmed that this South African-born outsider has become a force in Trump's Washington, outlasting his friend Elon Musk, whose White House career ended in acrimony after less than six months.
"Even among Silicon Valley allies, he has outperformed expectations," said a former close associate, speaking anonymously to discuss the matter candidly.
- 'Mafia' member -
Unlike many Silicon Valley figures, the South African-born Sacks has been staunchly conservative since his Stanford University days in the 1990s.
There he met Peter Thiel, the self-styled philosopher king of the right-wing tech community.
In the early 1990s, the two men wrote for a campus publication, attacking what they saw as political correctness destroying American higher education.
After earning degrees from Stanford and the University of Chicago, Sacks initially took a conventional path as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.
But Thiel lured his friend to his startup Confinity, which would eventually become PayPal, the legendary breeding ground for the "PayPal mafia" -- a group of entrepreneurs including Musk and LinkedIn billionaire Reid Hoffman -- whose influence now extends throughout the tech world.
After PayPal, Sacks founded a social media company, sold it to Microsoft, then made his fortune in venture capital.
A major turning point came during the COVID pandemic when Sacks and some right-wing friends launched the All-In podcast as a way to pass time, talk business and vent about Democrats in government.
The podcast rapidly gained influence, and the brand has since expanded to include major conferences and even a tequila line.
Sacks began his way to Trump's inner circle through campaign contributions ahead of last year's presidential election.
With Musk's blessing, he was appointed as pointman for AI and cryptocurrency policy.
Before diving into AI, Sacks shepherded an ambitious cryptocurrency bill providing legal clarity for digital assets.
It's a sector Trump has enthusiastically embraced, with his family now heavily invested in crypto companies and the president himself issuing a meme coin -- activity that critics say amounts to an open door for potential corruption.
But AI has become the central focus of Trump's second presidency with Sacks there to steer Trump toward industry-friendly policies.
However, Sacks faces mounting criticism for potential overreach.
According to his former associate, Sacks pursues his objectives with an obsessiveness that serves him well in Silicon Valley's company-building culture. But that same intensity can create friction in Washington.
The main controversy centers on his push to prevent individual states from creating their own AI regulations. His vision calls for AI rules to originate exclusively from Washington.
When Congress twice failed to ban state regulations, Sacks took his case directly to the president, who signed an executive order threatening to cut federal funding to states passing AI laws.
- 'Out of control' -
Tech lobbyists worry that by going solo, Sacks torpedoed any chance of effective national regulation.
More troubling for Sacks is the growing public opposition to AI's rapid deployment. Concerns about job losses, proliferating data centers, and rising electricity costs may become a major issue in the 2026 midterm elections.
"The tech bros are out of control," warned Steve Bannon, the right-wing Trump movement's strategic mastermind, worried about political fallout.
Rather than seeking common ground, Sacks calls criticism "a red herring" from AI doomers "who want all progress to stop."
The European laws curbing big tech... and irking Trump
Brussels, Belgium (AFP) Dec 24, 2025 -
The European Union is back in the crosshairs of the Trump administration over its tech rules, which Washington denounced as an attempt to "coerce" American social media platforms into censoring viewpoints they oppose.
The US State Department said Tuesday it would deny visas to a former EU commissioner and four others, saying they "have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states -- in each case targeting American speakers and American companies".
Trump has vowed to punish countries that seek to curb US big tech firms.
Brussels has adopted a powerful legal arsenal aimed at reining in tech giants -- namely through its Digital Markets Act (DMA) which covers competition and the Digital Services Act (DSA) on content moderation.
The EU has already slapped heavy fines on US behemoths including Apple, Meta and X under the new rules.
Here is a look at the EU rules drawing Trump's ire:
- Digital Services Act -
Rolled out in stages since 2023, the mammoth Digital Services Act forces online firms to aggressively police content in the 27 countries of the European Union -- or face major fines.
Aimed at protecting consumers from disinformation and hate speech as well as counterfeit or dangerous goods, it obliges platforms to swiftly remove illegal content or make it inaccessible.
The law instructs platforms to suspend users who frequently share illegal content such as hate speech -- a provision framed as "censorship" by detractors across the Atlantic.
Tougher rules apply to a designated list of "very large" platforms that include US giants Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Instagram, Microsoft, Snapchat and X.
These giants must assess dangers linked to their services regarding illegal content and privacy, set up internal risk mitigation systems, and give regulators access to their data to verify compliance.
Violators can face fines of up to six percent of global turnover, and the EU has the power to ban offending platforms from Europe for repeated non-compliance.
Elon Musk's X was hit with the first fine under the DSA on December 5, a 120-million-euro ($140 million) penalty for a lack of transparency over what the EU calls the deceptive design of its "blue checkmark" for supposedly verified accounts, and its failure to provide access to public data for researchers.
- Digital Markets Act -
Since March 2024, the world's biggest digital companies have faced strict EU rules intended to limit abuses linked to market dominance, favour the emergence of start-ups in Europe and improve options for consumers.
Brussels has so far named seven so-called gatekeepers covered by the Digital Markets Act: Google's Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, TikTok parent ByteDance, Facebook and Instagram parent Meta, Microsoft and travel giant Booking.
Gatekeepers can be fined for locking in customers to use pre-installed services, such as a web browser, mapping or weather information.
The DMA has forced Google to overhaul its search display to avoid favouring its own services -- such as Google flights or shopping.
It requires that users be able to choose what app stores they use -- without going via the dominant two players, Apple's App Store and Google Play.
And it has forced Apple to allow developers to offer alternative payment options directly to consumers -- outside of the App Store, hitting it with a fine of 500 million euros in April.
The DMA has also imposed interoperability between messaging apps WhatsApp and Messenger and competitors who request it.
The EU fined Meta 200 million euros in April over its "pay or consent" system after it violated rules on the use of personal data on Facebook and Instagram.
Failure to comply with the DMA can carry fines in the billions of dollars, reaching 20 percent of global turnover for repeat offenders.
- RGPD and AI -
The EU's data protection rules (RGPD) have also tripped up US tech giants, with Brussels issuing numerous fines since they came into force in 2018.
The rules require firms to seek the consent of users to collect personal data and to explain what it will be used for, and gives users the right to ask firms to delete personal data.
Fines for violations can go as high as 20 million euros, or four percent of a company's global turnover.
The EU has also adopted its AI act which will gradually bring in guardrails on using artificial intelligence in high-risk areas such as security, health and civic rights. In the face of pressure from the industry, the EU is considering weakening the measures and delaying their implementation.
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