Trump Hosts Xi Jinping at State Dinner, Tech Leaders Attend
President Donald Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to a state dinner at the White House, where several prominent figures from the tech industry were present. Notably absent was Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, while other notable attendees included Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Elon Musk of SpaceX, and Sam Altman of OpenAI.
According to reports, the dinner also featured AMD’s CEO Lisa Su, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and others from the tech sphere like Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The guest list showcased a strong representation of the tech elite.
Amodei’s exclusion from the gathering was significant, especially considering Trump’s previous comments pushing back against his call for what Amodei described as an AI slowdown.
AI was a major topic during the earlier Trump-Xi meeting that day. Trump hinted at it on Truth Social, stating, “Super Intelligence (SI) will be a big topic of discussion.” He added that he wanted to keep the conversation in line with China’s position on the matter. Trump’s rebranding of AI to “Super Intelligence” stood out as one of his focal points.
As of the time of publication, there was no official U.S. government summary available, but a Chinese government statement provided insights into the discussions. According to this account, Xi noted that although the two nations might have competition, there was potential for enhanced cooperation. He emphasized the importance of maintaining a dialogue on AI, sharing views on its associated risks and benefits, and ensuring AI development serves humanity positively. Trump reportedly concurred with Xi on fostering dialogue and cooperation in the AI realm.
The discussions followed a conversation over the weekend between U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his Chinese counterpart He Lifeng, which was described as a “U.S.-China AI dialogue.” This dialogue is said to include a communication line for issues escalating to a national security level, akin to the Cold War-era “red phone” between the U.S. and Russia.
Amidst these interactions, there’s a notable tension where leading AI companies simultaneously introduce powerful models while advocating for industry regulations. As highlighted by David Sacks, calls for a slowdown from figures like Amodei and Musk might not stem from purely altruistic motives. There’s a sense that they are trying to position themselves advantageously within the industry while avoiding regulatory scrutiny. This complexity is something Trump seems to be aware of, as noted by social media director Wynton Hall in discussing the implications of AI regulation.
