President Donald Trump is heading to Beijing this week for a major summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and the White House has reportedly invited some of America’s biggest business leaders to join the trip. The list includes Elon Musk, Apple CEO Tim Cook, BlackRock chief Larry Fink, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, and Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, reports Reuters.
The May 13-15 visit is expected to focus heavily on trade, manufacturing, aviation, and investment deals between the US and China at a time when tensions over AI chips, tariffs, and supply chains remain high. And the report suggests that the administration is pushing for large commercial agreements, including possible Boeing aircraft orders and expanded Chinese purchases of US goods.
The delegation is expected to include more than a dozen senior executives from sectors ranging from technology and banking to aerospace, agriculture, and payments. As per the report, Meta executive Dina Powell McCormick, Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, Qualcomm chief Cristiano Amon, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach, Visa CEO Ryan McInerney, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, GE Aerospace CEO Larry Culp, Cargill CEO Brian Sikes, Coherent CEO Jim Anderson, and Illumina CEO Jacob Thaysen are also expected to participate in parts of the trip.
The summit is expected to be one of the biggest US-China meetings since Trump returned to the White House. While Washington and Beijing remain locked in disputes over semiconductors, electric vehicles, Taiwan, rare earth minerals, and export controls, both sides are also trying to avoid a deeper economic breakdown between the world’s two largest economies. Officials from both countries are expected to discuss extending the current trade agreement that temporarily eased retaliatory restrictions on critical materials and technology exports.
The visit is also important for Elon Musk and Tim Cook, whose companies remain deeply tied to China despite growing geopolitical tensions. Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory continues to be one of the company’s most important manufacturing hubs, while Apple still relies heavily on Chinese suppliers and assembly operations even as it expands production in India and Vietnam. Beijing has historically maintained relatively open communication with both executives because of their economic importance inside China.
However, while several major tech and business leaders are expected to join the delegation, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is reportedly not invited, as the White House wants the trip to focus more on agriculture, manufacturing, and aviation rather than ongoing AI chip disputes. Nvidia remains at the center of the US-China semiconductor conflict after Washington imposed restrictions on advanced AI chip exports to China. Although the Trump administration previously signalled support for some Nvidia exports, Chinese regulatory approvals and export controls continue to complicate sales.
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Ashutosh is a Senior Writer at The Tech Portal, largely reporting on new tech, and intersection of technology and business. Ashutosh’s career spans across nearly a decade of technology writing across multiple platforms and languages.
