When a handful of America’s most powerful officials left Beijing on May 14, the message was the same: The summit went well. In a recent Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the conversation was “very smooth” and that both leaders were “impressive”. When Tim Cook was asked about the result, he nodded in agreement.
The delegation that included Musk, Cook and Huang along with President Donald Trump engaged in lengthy discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping in an effort to ease all trade tensions between the two countries in an effort to provide American tech companies access to Chinese markets.
The selection of corporate leaders was no accident. NVIDIA is in charge of the chips that are driving the AI ​​revolution around the world. Apple produces about 95% of its iPhone lineup in China, an investment worth hundreds of billions.
For Tesla, another electric vehicle maker owned by Musk, China is essential for growth. Both have large financial interests in US-China relations and both have suffered the effects of their breakdown.
In 2022, under Biden’s presidency, export restrictions imposed on Nvidia resulted in a loss of up to $400 million in sales to China. By the end of 2025, Huang acknowledged that Nvidia may have lost all of its market share in China, dropping from 95% to zero as Chinese companies Huawei and DeepSeek developed alternative products based on domestically produced chips.
The United States Trade Representative has granted Apple several tariff exemptions through 2019 and 2025 because Cook appealed to them. The company recently scored a win when it avoided the 25 percent iPhone tax that used to apply to phones not produced within the United States.
Musk’s relationship with China experienced difficulties. The public was skeptical of Tesla’s first entry into the market because the company faced operational challenges. The company managed to increase its Chinese sales to three times the previous level by 2016 as Chinese customers became its main source of income.
The White House outlined three main objectives: to pressure China to “open up” to American companies, address trade barriers, and establish dialogue on AI development and geopolitical stability.
