Trump invites 16 top executives to join China trip amid trade talks
Trump has invited 16 executives, including Elon Musk, Tim Cook and Larry Fink, to Beijing, signaling business will sit inside his China diplomacy.
The White House has invited 16 top U.S. executives to travel with President Trump to China, a guest list that puts corporate power at the center of his next encounter with Xi Jinping. The delegation spans Big Tech, finance, agriculture, aerospace and defense, turning a diplomatic visit into a showcase of how much economic leverage Washington wants to bring to Beijing.
Trump is scheduled to leave Tuesday, May 13, 2026, for Beijing, where he will meet Xi in the first Trump-Xi summit of his second term. The agenda is expected to run far beyond tariffs. Trade, artificial intelligence, export controls, Taiwan and the Iran war are all expected to come up, reflecting the pressure points now defining the U.S.-China relationship.
Among those reported as invited are Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, Apple chief Tim Cook, BlackRock chief Larry Fink, Boeing chief Kelly Ortberg, Blackstone founder Stephen Schwarzman, Cargill chief Brian Sikes, Citigroup chief Jane Fraser, Coherent chief Jim Anderson, GE Aerospace chief H. Lawrence Culp Jr., Goldman Sachs chief David Solomon, Illumina chief Jacob Thaysen, Mastercard chief Michael Miebach, Meta executive Dina Powell McCormick, Micron chief Sanjay Mehrotra, Qualcomm chief Cristiano Amon and Visa chief Ryan McInerney. Cisco chief Chuck Robbins was also invited but cannot attend because of the company’s earnings schedule.
The mix is telling. It suggests the White House wants Beijing to see not only a political delegation, but a cross-section of American industry that touches the technologies, finance, supply chains and commodities at the heart of the rivalry. That is especially pointed as the two sides clash over AI technology, sanctions and rare earth exports, three arenas where access and dependence can quickly become bargaining chips.
Nvidia chief Jensen Huang was notably absent from the initial list, even as Trump has said he wants to secure business deals and purchase agreements during the trip. The choice to bring executives from sectors tied to semiconductors, cloud computing, aviation, banking and industrial supply chains sends a clear message: the administration is not treating diplomacy and commerce as separate tracks.
Trump’s last visit to China came in November 2017, before the trade war remade the bilateral relationship. This trip, by contrast, is being staged as a second-term reset, with corporate America not on the sidelines but built into the opening move.
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