Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook expected to join Trump for Xi summit in China

[WASHINGTON/BEIJING/NEW YORK] Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, GE Aerospace’s Larry Culp and Boeing’s Kelly Ortberg will join US President Donald Trump on his visit to China this week, a White House official told Reuters.

The group of more than a dozen top executives is joining Trump for a visit later this week that the US president hopes will unlock a series of business deals and purchase agreements with Beijing. It is comprised mostly of representatives of major financial, technology, aerospace and agricultural firms.

Others taking part include Meta’s Dina Powell McCormick, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, Micron’s Sanjay Mehrotra, Mastercard’s Michael Miebach, Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon and Visa’s Ryan McInerney, the official said.

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins was invited by the White House to join the China trip but was unable to attend as the company’s earnings will be released this week, a company spokesperson said.

The US and China are expected to agree to forums to facilitate mutual trade and investment, while China is expected to announce purchases related to Boeing airplanes, American agriculture and energy, Reuters reported earlier on Monday (May 11).

Major business deals or purchases are often announced during summit meetings between China and the United States.

Others attending include Cargill’s Brian Sikes, Coherent’s Jim Anderson and Illumina’s Jacob Thaysen.

The two countries will also discuss lengthening a truce in their trade war that allows rare earth minerals to flow from China to the US, though it is not yet clear if that agreement will be extended this week, Reuters reported.

Ortberg said in April that Boeing was counting on the Trump administration to help unlock a long-awaited major order from China.

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China and the US planemaker have been in prolonged talks for a deal that industry sources say could include 500 737 MAX jets, plus dozens of widebody jets powered by GE engines. It would be the country’s first major Boeing order since 2017, and any announcement of the order would be viewed as a major win for the leaders’ summit. It could also represent the single largest airplane order in history.

The delegation list does not include Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company and maker of the advanced chips powering the global AI boom, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Huang was not invited, the source said, with the White House focusing more on agriculture and commercial aviation matters, such as orders for Boeing planes, on the current trip. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has developed a strong relationship with Huang since he has been in office and agreed to allow the company’s H200 AI chips to be exported to China. But they have not yet been sold, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Apr 22, citing difficulties with Chinese companies getting permission from the Chinese government to buy them.

The last meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping was in October in South Korea, where they agreed to pause a bruising trade war that had seen the US impose triple-digit tariffs on Chinese goods and Beijing threaten to restrict the global supply of rare earths. REUTERS/BLOOMBERG