Trump China Visit Brings CEOs From Nvidia, Tesla

President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on May 13, 2026, accompanied by about 17 U.S. chief executives, including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Tesla’s Elon Musk. The delegation aims to secure near-term commercial deals, stabilize U.S.–China ties, and highlight AI chip exports.

CEO Delegation and Arrival

The state visit is scheduled for May 12–15, 2026. Trump landed at Beijing Capital International Airport on the evening of May 13, where Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng, and U.S. Ambassador David Perdue greeted him alongside a military honor guard and roughly 300 students.

The delegation includes top executives from technology, finance, and industry sectors. Notable figures are Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Elon Musk of Tesla, Tim Cook of Apple, Cristiano Amon of Qualcomm, Sanjay Mehrotra of Micron, Chuck Robbins of Cisco, Dina Powell of Meta, Larry Fink of BlackRock, Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone, David Solomon of Goldman Sachs, Jane Fraser of Citigroup, Michael Miebach of Mastercard, Ryan McInerney of Visa, Kelly Ortberg of Boeing, Brian Sikes of Cargill, Jim Anderson of Coherent, and Larry Culp of General Electric.

Jensen Huang joined the delegation at the last minute. Initially not invited, he flew to Alaska to board Air Force One after a personal call from President Trump. This addition underscores the focus on AI chip exports and advanced technology trade.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth accompanied the president. Rubio is a sanctioned individual by China, and Hegseth is the first defense secretary to travel with a U.S. president to China since 1972. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Deputy National Security Advisor Robert Gabriel, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller also joined. Eric and Lara Trump traveled in a personal capacity, while First Lady Melania Trump did not join the delegation.

Trade and Strategic Priorities

The White House described the visit as a platform to facilitate dialogue on trade barriers, AI development, and geopolitical stability. The Chinese embassy posted on X that four "red lines"—Taiwan, democracy and human rights, political systems, and China’s development rights—must not be challenged, signaling Beijing’s core negotiating limits.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on April 16 that Beijing provided "high-level assurances" it would not send weapons to Iran, explicitly ruling out the transfer of surface-to-air missiles. He attributed this assurance to the "strong and direct relationship" between Trump and Xi Jinping.

U.S. negotiating goals include securing increased Chinese purchases of American commodities such as soybeans, beef, ethanol, sorghum, coal, oil, and natural gas. Officials are also targeting completion of a long-delayed China order for up to 500 Boeing 737 MAX jets and advancing plans to create a U.S.–China Board of Trade and Investment.

The administration’s December 2025 approval of Nvidia’s advanced chip exports to China, with the U.S. government receiving a 25% revenue share, sets a precedent for semiconductor trade and AI governance as central themes of the visit.

Analysts expect the summit to yield visible commercial deals rather than substantive policy breakthroughs. Officials say this meeting is the first of four planned summit encounters between the two leaders in 2026.

"Beijing had provided 'high-level assurances' to the White House that it would not send weapons to Iran," Defense Secretary Hegseth said.