Donald Trump is heading to China with a business-heavy entourage, and the guest list says a lot about where Washington wants the next deal to land: airplanes, farm exports, and energy, not Nvidia chips. Reuters says 16 corporate executives are expected to join the visit, including Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Kelly Ortberg, and Larry Culp, as the US and China try to restart trade talks and cool tensions.
The absence of Nvidia’s chief executive is the loudest omission. That makes sense if the White House is chasing fast, visible wins: aircraft deliveries, agricultural purchases, and energy deals are easier to package than the messy fight over advanced semiconductors.
Boeing could land the biggest prize
Boeing is the company to watch. According to the report, China may order as many as 500 737 MAX jets plus dozens of wide-body aircraft, which would be the first major Boeing order from China since 2017. That kind of number would give both governments a headline-friendly win while also helping Boeing close the gap with Airbus, which has been doing plenty of business in China while Boeing waited for the political weather to improve.
GE Aerospace is also represented, which fits the same script: sell the parts, the planes, and the engines, then call it diplomacy. If the talks move forward, the emphasis on aviation and agriculture suggests a narrower but more realistic bargain than a sweeping reset of the whole US-China relationship.
What Washington and Beijing are discussing
- New trade forums to restart the dialogue
- Possible expansion of deals covering US farm products, energy, and aircraft
- A temporary truce in the trade war, including rare earths shipments from China to the US
The rare earths piece matters because it gives both sides leverage without forcing an immediate grand bargain. China controls a lot of that supply chain, and the US has spent years trying to reduce its dependence on it – a reminder that trade diplomacy here is as much about industrial vulnerability as tariffs.
Why tech is present, but not the whole story
Apple’s Tim Cook and Tesla’s Elon Musk are in the room because they already know how much China matters to American tech revenue and manufacturing. But the fact that the delegation is loaded with industrial and transport names shows the administration is aiming for deals that can be counted, photographed, and announced before anyone starts arguing about export controls again.
If the reported aircraft order materializes, expect Boeing to grab the spotlight first and everyone else to call it progress. The bigger question is whether this becomes a one-off trade reset or just another carefully staged pause before the next fight over chips, minerals, and market access.