US 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.
