- President Trump travels to China with 17 executives.
- NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang added after personal call.
- Musk’s presence signals restored relationship with Trump.
Xi Summit 2026: US President Donald Trump is travelling to China this week with a delegation of 17 chief executives for a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, with Elon Musk among those making the trip. The visit marks a significant diplomatic moment, with the US president bringing some of the country’s biggest corporate names to the table. NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang was a late addition after Trump personally called him Tuesday morning, following reports that he had been left off the original White House list.
Who Is Travelling With Trump To The Xi Summit
The White House released the delegation list on Monday, ahead of Trump’s departure from Washington on Tuesday. Huang boarded Air Force One on Tuesday for the final leg of the journey, joining an already notable lineup.
His company is central to the global race over artificial intelligence, and he has spent nearly a year lobbying officials in both Washington and Beijing to allow Nvidia to sell its AI chips to China.
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According to a person familiar with the call, Trump saw reports that Huang had been left off the list and reached out to him directly.
The full delegation includes Tim Cook of Apple, Larry Fink of BlackRock, Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone, Kelly Ortberg of Boeing, Brian Sikes of Cargill, Jane Fraser of Citi, Jim Anderson of Coherent, Larry Culp of GE Aerospace, David Solomon of Goldman Sachs, Jacob Thaysen of Illumina, Michael Miebach of Mastercard, Dina Powell McCormick of Meta, Sanjay Mehrotra of Micron, Cristiano Amon of Qualcomm, Musk of Tesla, and Ryan McInerney of Visa. Cisco confirmed its CEO, Chuck Robbins, could not attend.
US officials said Trump plans to raise the creation of a board of investment and a board of trade with China during the meetings.
What Musk’s Presence At The Summit Signals
Musk’s inclusion in the delegation is being read as a clear sign that his relationship with Trump has been restored. He had served as a senior adviser to the president and led the effort to overhaul the federal bureaucracy before leaving the administration last May after a falling out over Trump’s tax and spending legislation. The two have since rebuilt ties, and his seat at the table in Beijing reflects that.
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The trip also builds on a pattern from earlier this year, when Trump hosted a White House dinner in September 2025 with 33 executives from tech, pharma, defence and semiconductors, including the CEOs of Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, OpenAI and Oracle.
That event was described by Fortune as marking “Silicon Valley’s strategic realignment with Trump’s administration on AI and technology policies.” Huang was absent from that dinner, making his direct invitation to this trip all the more pointed.
