Some of America’s most influential technology and business leaders have been invited to next week’s White House state dinner honoring Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, SpaceX and Tesla chief Elon Musk, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are among the technology leaders expected at the Sept. 24 event, a US official said Friday.
The guest list also includes NVIDIA President Jensen Huang, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell and Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser.
Tim Cook, who stepped down as Apple’s CEO last month, has also been invited to the dinner.
Musk, Huang, Cook and Fraser previously accompanied President Trump to Beijing, where they attended Xi’s lavish banquet for the US president at the Great Hall of the People.
Xi is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Wednesday, with Trump expected to greet him personally at Joint Base Andrews.
The leaders will hold their main bilateral meetings the next day, followed by the state dinner on Thursday.
The event will be only the second state visit hosted by Trump and first lady Melania Trump during this term. The first was the April visit by King Charles and Queen Camilla.
“The formal dinner is the hottest ticket in town,” a senior administration official involved in the planning said, adding that leading political, corporate and technology figures are competing for a “very limited number of seats.”
“This dinner is a big one, as China is the biggest of them all, and they all want a place at the table,” the official said.
The three-day program will include an official arrival ceremony, a troop inspection, a spouses’ program and the formal dinner. Those elements give the visit a more ceremonial tone than the working visits typically made by foreign leaders.
Xi’s visit comes as Washington and Beijing remain locked in a high-stakes contest for technological leadership, particularly in artificial intelligence.
Several Chinese business executives are expected to join Xi’s delegation, giving officials and corporate leaders from both countries an opportunity to pursue informal diplomacy during the dinner.
Ambassador Monica Crowley, the US chief of protocol, told The Post that Trump and the first lady “look forward to welcoming President Xi and Madame Peng to the United States of America for their first State Visit in 11 years.”
“The grandeur of this three-day event reflects the importance of our bilateral relationship and the strategic issues impacting our two countries and the world,” Crowley said. “Every detail has been thoughtfully curated by the President and First Lady, who are incredibly gracious hosts.
“They anticipate a highly successful visit, grounded in exceptional American hospitality.”
