President Donald Trump’s upcoming state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping will bring together some of America’s most prominent business leaders, including top executives from Amazon, OpenAI, Google, Nvidia, Apple, Tesla, Dell and Citigroup.
Senior U.S. officials announced the guest list during a press call Friday, naming Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, Sundar Pichai, Jensen Huang, Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Michael Dell and Jane Fraser as business leaders who will attend the dinner.
The gathering, which one U.S. official described as a “popular and hot ticketed event,” comes as Trump prepares to host Xi at the White House next week for talks expected to focus heavily on U.S.-China economic and technological relations.
On Wednesday, Trump will greet Xi at Joint Base Andrews, followed by an arrival ceremony at the White House. On Thursday evening, the president and First Lady Melania Trump will host the Chinese delegation for a state dinner in the East Room. Both Trump and Xi will deliver remarks at the beginning of the dinner.
The executives expected at the table represent some of the biggest companies in industries at the heart of the increasingly competitive U.S.-China relationship, from artificial intelligence to technology, finance, and manufacturing.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are among the biggest names in AI. Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Apple Executive Chairman Tim Cook, Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos round out the high-profile group.
The A-list guest list comes as AI is expected to be a key topic when Trump and Xi meet. White House officials said during Friday’s briefing that artificial intelligence and the current U.S.-China trade truce are both on the agenda.
Earlier this year, Trump also brought a group of major American executives with him during his visit to China, including Musk, who has significant business ties to China through Tesla, which operates its largest production facility in Shanghai and generates roughly a quarter of its revenue from the country, The Daily Wire reported.
Before the high-stakes dinner, the president will arrive in New York Monday afternoon and will participate in political events at Trump Tower that evening. On Tuesday morning, Trump will address the UN General Assembly.
During the press call, U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz previewed some of the issues Trump may discuss.
“We expect the president will highlight how he and his administration have confronted complex problems head-on around the world,” Waltz said. “Many of the peace deals that he has driven to conclusion, or is in the process of driving to conclusion, he’ll include many of the issues, frankly neglected by past administrations, that he’s not going to kick the can on.”
“He’s not going to leave them for another day or another administration. He will touch on the importance of ensuring that Iran never has a nuclear weapon,” Waltz added.
Late Friday, Trump announced that the United States had reached an agreement with Denmark and Greenland that he says gives the U.S. “permanent control over security” on the Arctic island. Danish and Greenlandic leaders said the deal is expected to be signed at next week’s UN General Assembly, pending parliamentary approval in both capitals.
The president said the U.S. will “immediately begin the process of developing a large Military presence” there, The Daily Wire reported.
