Sunday, September 27, 2026 - President Donald Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at a White House state dinner on Thursday, September 24, with some of the world’s wealthiest technology executives among the high-profile guests.
The dinner formed part of Xi’s state visit to Washington and
followed talks between the two leaders on issues affecting US-China relations,
including trade and artificial intelligence. More than 130 guests attended the
event, according to the White House guest list, with leading figures from the
American technology and business sectors featuring prominently.
Among those attending were Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk,
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, AMD CEO Lisa Su and Apple executive chairman Tim Cook.
Other prominent technology executives at the dinner included Amazon founder
Jeff Bezos, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO
Sundar Pichai. Musk, Huang and Cook were among the technology executives seated
at the main table with Trump and Xi, while Huang attended with his wife, Lori.
The gathering brought together executives whose companies
play significant roles in the global technology industry at a time when
competition between the United States and China over artificial intelligence
and advanced technology remains an important part of the bilateral
relationship. Trump and Xi used the dinner to emphasise cooperation between
their countries following their earlier discussions.
The evening featured a pescatarian menu beginning with
yellow squash velouté, followed by sesame-crusted sea bass and a vanilla
crémeux with sour cherry confit for dessert. The dinner came during Xi’s
three-day visit to Washington, which included an official White House welcome
and bilateral talks with Trump.
The presence of leading technology executives also
highlighted the commercial stakes surrounding US-China relations, as many of
the companies represented at the dinner have significant business interests
connected to China.
Tesla, Apple and Nvidia, in particular, have substantial
commercial exposure to the Chinese market, while US restrictions on advanced
semiconductor exports and competition over artificial intelligence remain
significant issues between Washington and Beijing.
The state dinner was one of the highest-profile events of
Xi’s visit and brought together senior US and Chinese officials, business
leaders and members of the Trump administration as the two governments
continued discussions over their economic and strategic relationship.
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