This is certainly news. Because, while in recent weeks Trump Tower appeared to be frequented exclusively by entrepreneurs and millionaires tied to the old economy, two entrepreneurs who are actually changing that economy are now joining the government team, with a focus on sustainability, the sharing economy, and technological innovation.

Perhaps that is why Trump has chosen Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla, and Travis Kalanick, founder of Uber, as advisers to the Strategic and Policy Forum. They will serve as advisers on economic and labour policies.

Trump extends an olive branch to Silicon Valley

This is by no means an obvious move. Throughout the long months of the electoral campaign, Musk himself had stated that he did not consider Trump the right person to lead the United States, stressing that it was Hillary Clinton who was backing the right environmental and economic policies. The whole of Silicon Valley, the United States' technology heartland, had been divided over the candidate who is today president-elect.

It is, however, undoubtedly a shrewd and essential move to avoid burning bridges with the major high-tech and other companies that are turning over billions of dollars and are in constant growth. Giants such as Uber, Tesla and SpaceX, or Apple itself, are simply too significant for Trump to ignore.

Elon Musk and others dine with Trump

What one hopes at this point is that, following the intervention of Leonardo DiCaprio, the presence of Elon Musk may at least slow down the US president-elect's desire to give further room to a fossil economy that has now fallen behind on every front — from energy production to industrial output.

And the announcement in recent days that Trump will shortly be meeting various leaders of the high-tech world and the most prominent figures from Silicon Valley — among them Tim Cook, Larry Page, Jeff Bezos and Sheryl Sandberg — may give grounds for cautious optimism.