Musk, Cook, and 15 Other CEOs Fly to Beijing With Trump
BBC Business reported Wednesday that President Donald Trump is bringing 17 senior US executives to Beijing for his first official visit to China in nearly a decade.
A Who’s Who of American Business
The delegation reads like a cross-section of US corporate power. Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, and Elon Musk, head of Tesla and SpaceX, are both travelling. Larry Fink of BlackRock is also confirmed. Others on the list include the chiefs of Boeing, Visa, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citi, Mastercard, Blackstone, and agricultural giant Cargill. Meta, GE Aerospace, Coherent, and biotech firm Illumina round out the group.
Illumina said its chief executive is “honored” to participate and hopes the visit will advance precision medicine cooperation globally.
Nvidia’s Last-Minute Surprise
One notable addition emerged unexpectedly. Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, was not on the original delegation list. His company sits at the centre of the US-China rivalry over semiconductors and artificial intelligence. Yet Huang was spotted boarding Air Force One when the aircraft refuelled in Anchorage, Alaska. A Nvidia spokesperson told the BBC that Huang joined at Trump’s direct invitation “to support America and the administration’s goals.”
Also noteworthy is the presence of Sanjay Mehrotra, chief executive of Micron Technology. Beijing banned some Micron chips from Chinese critical infrastructure in 2023 on national security grounds, a decision Micron said hurt its China business materially.
Background: A Fragile Truce Under Pressure
The Beijing trip is Trump’s first as president to China and represents a significant diplomatic moment. The two governments spent much of 2024 and early 2025 locked in a tariff war, with levies on both sides at times exceeding 100%. A pause was agreed in October 2025 following a Trump-Xi meeting held in South Korea. That ceasefire remains fragile.
Trump is also expected to press Beijing over the ongoing US-Israel war with Iran. China depends heavily on Iranian oil, and Washington wants Beijing to help broker a settlement. The conflict has already disrupted global energy flows and delayed the Trump-Xi meeting once.
Cisco chief Chuck Robbins was invited but could not attend due to a scheduled earnings release, a company spokesperson confirmed.
What Comes Next
The summit carries economic weight beyond trade. Export controls on advanced chips, market access, and technology standards are all likely to feature in the agenda. The composition of the US delegation signals that technology and finance will sit at the centre of any deal-making.
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