Jay Clayton
Jay Clayton is an American attorney who serves as the 9th Director of National Intelligence, having been confirmed by the Senate in July 2026. He previously served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from April 2025 to July 2026 and as the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 2017 to 2020. He is best known for his work in financial regulation at the SEC and for recently assuming leadership of the U.S. intelligence community, where he has identified artificial intelligence and super intelligence as national security concerns.
“Bessent, Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, Hegseth and White House officials pressed Lutnick and Kessler to act.”
Source→“Named by Brad as leaders of the frontier model review and the SI Force coordination”
Source→“Scott Kupor was one of a16z's first employees, spending 16 years as managing partner before leaving to join Trump 2.0 as head of the Office of Personnel Management (a role he'll keep).”
“President Trump is expected to tap Jay Clayton, his director of national intelligence, for the added role as AI czar, though he will probably choose a different name for the position.”
Source→“President Donald Trump is likely to name Jay Clayton – the current director of national intelligence and former SEC chair – as his new AI czar, with Clayton possibly retaining his intelligence post, as well.”
Source→“When something's both an opportunity and a threat, you better get your arms around it.”
AI-extracted from podcast / newsletter / paper summaries. May contain errors.