Bringing the CEO of the world's most valuable AI chipmaker on Air Force One is a hint about what this trip is really about. Trump's summit with Xi Jinping begins Thursday in Beijing, and the guest list says more than the press release.
Trump landed Wednesday to a brass band welcome at Beijing Capital International Airport, traveling with executives from some of America's most valuable companies and with Musk and Huang at the front of the lineup.
Thursday's schedule covers a welcome ceremony, a bilateral meeting with Xi, a tour of the Temple of Heaven, and a state banquet. Trump leaves Friday after tea and a working lunch with Xi.
The two leaders are expected to talk tariffs and rare earths, and most analysts are bracing for the easy wins.
Sen. Steve Daines, fresh off a congressional trip to China, told CNBC's Squawk Box he expects deals on "Boeing, beef and beans" - aircraft orders, U.S. agricultural exports, and a tariff de-escalation. Daines also said it's "in both leaders' interest to keep the relationship stable, and to de-escalate, not decouple."
That fits a familiar playbook. China buys planes and soybeans, the U.S. dials back a tariff or two, and both sides claim a win.
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Look at the passenger list and the conversation looks different. Musk runs Tesla, which leans heavily on its Shanghai factory for global output, while Huang runs Nvidia, the company at the center of every fight over what AI chips can and can't be sold into China.
Both companies sit in the middle of the U.S.-China tech relationship. Bringing them along signals the real negotiation isn't about soybeans - it's about who gets to sell what to whom across AI, electric vehicles, and the rare earth supply chain that feeds both.
Taiwan and the Iran war are also on the agenda. Both touch every multinational with operations or supply chains running through Asia.
On Truth Social this week, Trump said he expected "great things" to come out of the summit.
Watch for two things when the readout drops Friday. First, any update on Nvidia's ability to sell its top AI chips into China, which is the headline tech investors care about.
Second, watch for movement on rare earths, where Beijing controls the processing capacity that the U.S. defense and clean energy industries depend on.
Plane orders and soybean deals will grab the headlines. The chip and rare earths language will move the money.
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