Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Tim Cook: Who’s in Trump’s US$1 trillion CEO delegation to China
A total of 17 CEOs and senior executives are in the group
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[SINGAPORE] US President Donald Trump is in China this week – the first visit by Trump in nearly 10 years – and his delegation includes CEOs of major American companies.
At the May 14 to 15 summit, the delegation includes the bosses of tech giants Nvidia, Apple and Tesla, according to the White House. Asset manager BlackRock and payment giants Mastercard and Visa, as well as Boeing – which is expected to announce a major deal – are also expected to be in attendance.
Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang was a last-minute addition with the White House saying his schedule had changed which led to him making the trip, according to Bloomberg.
Chuck Robbins, chairman and CEO of Cisco, had been invited to be a part of the trip but could not attend due to his company’s earnings.
A total of 17 CEOs and senior executives are in the delegation, according to the BBC, including:
- Nvidia: Jensen Huang, CEO
- Tesla: Elon Musk, CEO
- Meta: Dina Powell McCormick, president and vice-chairman
- Citigroup: Jane Fraser, CEO
- Goldman Sachs: David Solomon, CEO
- Boeing: Kelly Ortberg, president and CEO
- BlackRock: Larry Fink, CEO
- Blackstone: Stephen Schwarzman, CEO
- General Electric Aerospace: Larry Culp, CEO
- Visa: Ryan McInerney, CEO
- Mastercard: Michael Miebach, president
- Micron Technology: Sanjay Mehrotra, president and CEO
- Qualcomm: Cristiano Amon, president and CEO
- Cargill: Brian Sikes, chairman and CEO
- Coherent: Jim Anderson, CEO
- Illumina: Jacob Thaysen, CEO
The combined net worth of the key billionaires in this delegation will be well past the US$1 trillion mark, show Forbes estimates.
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They include Nvidia’s Huang (US$191.5 billion), Tesla’s Musk (US$823.3 billion), Blackstone’s Schwarzman (US$40.5 billion), Apple’s Cook (US$2.9 billion), General Electric’s Culp (US$1.8 billion) and BlackRock’s Fink (US$1.3 billion).
What’s happening on the sidelines?
The companies this time compared with Trump’s 2017 summit are visiting China with the goal of advancing business priorities there, according to Reuters, citing sources.
Some, such as Boeing’s Ortberg, are also looking to sign deals. China is considering a deal for about 500 of the US planemaker’s 737 MAX planes, according to Bloomberg. Ortberg hinted at a “big number” of planes to be sold in April during his company’s first-quarter earnings call, though he declined to give a specific number.
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Meanwhile, the attendance of Micron’s Mehrotra comes three years after Beijing restricted the use of some Micron chips in critical infrastructure in 2023 on national security grounds. The move hurt Micron’s business in China, the company has said.
The last-minute addition of Nvidia’s Huang came days after he told CNBC of his willingness to join Trump on the trip.
Each of the executives will also be keen to make progress beyond the fragile trade truce that is in place after 2025’s tit-for-tat tariff war. At their peak, US tariffs on Chinese goods hit 145 per cent, prompting a Chinese retaliation of a 125 per cent levy on US goods.
The tariffs were paused in October last year after Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.
In key focus will also be the US-Israel-Iran war, which has sent global oil prices soaring. This week’s meeting was previously set to be held in April, but was delayed due to the conflict.
China on May 6 hosted Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and called for the Strait of Hormuz – through which 20 per cent of global oil and gas passed before the war began on Feb 28 – to be reopened “as soon as possible”.
The trade truce is expected to be extended, including the agreement to allow US to import rare-earth minerals such as yttrium, dysprosium and terbium. Trump on Monday (May 11) also said that American arms sales to Taiwan and the imprisonment of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai will be on his agenda.
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