Trump to lead a delegation of major corporate CEOs to China next week

The Trump administration is assembling a large corporate delegation for the Xi-Trump meeting on May 14-15, with an invitation list that spans across core industries such as technology, finance, energy, and aviation manufacturing.

According to Semafor, executives from Nvidia, Apple, ExxonMobil, Boeing, Qualcomm, Blackstone Group, Citigroup, and Visa are all on the invitation list. Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman and Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser have confirmed their attendance.

The participation of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is quite noteworthy. In an interview with CNBC on Thursday night, he stated, "If invited, it would be an honor—representing the United States alongside President Trump on a visit to China is a great honor." This statement implies that he has not yet received a formal invitation, with just a few days remaining before the summit.

The backdrop of this summit is not calm. According to Bloomberg, the Chinese side has concerns about holding high-level talks before the Iran war is resolved, but Trump insists on advancing the planned schedule.

The arrangement for corporate executives to accompany visits to China has always been seen as an important signal of a thaw in bilateral relations, and the final confirmation of the invitation list will be an important leading indicator in observing the tone of this summit.

Points of interest: Potentially involving Boeing aircraft orders (500 737 Max and wide-body planes), soybean imports, and China-US AI cooperation.