Key facts
- Chinese business leaders were excluded from a White House state dinner honoring President Xi Jinping.
- Invitations for Chinese business leaders to attend the dinner never arrived.
- US tech and finance leaders, including Jensen Huang of Nvidia and Tim Cook of Apple, were seated with Trump and Xi.
- The exclusion of Chinese business leaders highlighted potential differences in expectations between the US and China regarding the summit.
- The state dinner took place on Thursday, September 24, 2026.
Chinese business leaders who had traveled to Washington D.C. for President Xi Jinping's state visit were ultimately excluded from the White House state dinner held in his honor on Thursday, September 24, 2026. Despite weeks of discussions between Washington and Beijing about their potential participation, their invitations never materialized, leaving them on the sidelines of the event. The dinner, hosted by US President Donald Trump, was attended by numerous American business luminaries from Wall Street and Silicon Valley, including CEOs from Nvidia, Apple, AMD, OpenAI, JPMorgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs. Notably, Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Apple's Tim Cook, AMD's Lisa Su, and SpaceX's Elon Musk were seated at the same table as Trump and Xi, underscoring the focus on advanced technology and semiconductors. The absence of Chinese business figures from the guest list, which comprised over 130 attendees with fewer than 20 from the Chinese delegation and no corporate CEOs, highlighted potential divergences in expectations between the two nations regarding the summit's outcomes, even as Trump expressed optimism about securing business deals. The event showcased a demonstration of US technological and financial prowess, with prominent figures from various sectors present.