Body
President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday to meet with President Xi Jinping, and he brought with him a delegation that included senior executives from major U.S. technology, aerospace and finance companies, according to a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity. In addition to discussions about Iran, the official said the leaders were expected to address trade and artificial intelligence.
Among the executives on Air Force One were Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Apple CEO Tim Cook, the White House official said. The delegation also included Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, along with other leaders from companies spanning global finance, consumer technology and industrial sectors.
Musk, who is CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, also previously led Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency until he left in the spring of 2025, the official said. The White House described Musk as having visited China before and as having Tesla operations there, while also noting recent legal and business scrutiny involving his companies and social media platform X, including matters that have been reported by prosecutors in France.
Cook is the head of Apple and he is set to step down from the CEO role on Sept. 1, when he turns the CEO duties over to Apple’s head of hardware engineering, John Ternus, the official said. The official said Cook will remain with the company as executive chairman and pointed to how Apple’s overseas manufacturing has required diplomacy during periods when Trump pursued trade wars with China.
The White House said Jensen Huang’s trip to Beijing comes months after the Trump administration placed new security requirements on Nvidia semiconductor sales to China but effectively greenlit exports of Nvidia’s H200 artificial intelligence chips. Those rules, the official said, require an adequate supply in the United States and a third-party review before the H200 chips can be exported, with the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security setting the new requirements.
The official also said the conditions restrict China’s use of the chips for military purposes and limit how much of the chips can be imported relative to what Nvidia sells to U.S. customers, and that the approved chips did not include Nvidia’s most advanced products, including Blackwell and the upcoming Rubin. Huang traveled aboard Air Force One with Trump, the White House official said.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg joined the trip as the company works through ongoing legal, regulatory and production problems, along with financial repercussions, the official said. Ortberg took over as CEO in 2024, and the official said he has spent time focusing on Boeing’s recovery while also describing the effects of U.S.-China trade tensions on Boeing’s business.
In describing the backdrop for Boeing’s relationship with China, the White House official referenced retaliation tied to tariffs applied during Trump’s terms, including China’s import tax increase in April 2025 and the broader cycle that began with tariffs raised on Chinese-made products earlier. The official said Boeing has been in ongoing talks with China about a possible large aircraft sale and that China has sent fewer finished planes to that market over time.
Alongside Musk, Huang, Cook and Ortberg, the White House official listed additional executives joining Trump, including BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink; Blackstone Chairman, CEO and co-founder Stephen Schwarzman; Cargill Chairman and CEO Brian Sikes; Citi Chairman and CEO Jane Fraser; and other leaders from companies including GE Aerospace, Goldman Sachs, Illumina, Mastercard, Meta and Micron. The official also cited executives from Qualcomm and Visa, among others, as part of the group traveling to China.