Inside Trump’s billionaire entourage for Beijing as Elon Musk and Tim Cook join president on China trip
President Donald Trump will be accompanied on his key trip to China by an entourage of the super rich, boasting a combined net worth in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
The list of tech and financial industry titans joining the commander in chief to meet China’s president Xi Jinping includes Elon Musk, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and Apple CEO Tim Cook. Musk posted from Air Force One on Wednesday that he was on his way to Beijing.
Trump, who is scheduled to arrive in the country Wednesday evening, confirmed a number of high profile attendees in a lengthy post on Truth Social, albeit referring to Cook as “Tim Apple” in the process.
“It is an Honor to have Jensen, Elon, Tim Apple, Larry Fink, Stephen Schwarzmann, Kelly Ortberg (Boeing), Brian Sikes (Cargill), Jane Fraser (Citi), Larry Culp (GE Aerospace), David Solomon (Goldman Sachs), Sanjay Mehrotra (Micron), Cristiano Amon (Qualcomm), and many others journeying to the Great Country of China where I will be asking President Xi, a Leader of extraordinary distinction, to “open up” China so that these brilliant people can work their magic, and help bring the People’s Republic to an even higher level!” Trump wrote.
“In fact, I promise, that when we are together, which will be in a matter of hours, I will make that my very first request.
“I have never seen or heard of any idea that would be more beneficial to our incredible Countries.”
According to Forbes, the group has a combined net worth of $870 billion, excluding Huang who was originally not thought to be attending.
Including Huang’s net worth, which the magazine estimates to be $190.6 billion, the combined number soars to over $1.06 trillion.
Musk, the Tesla CEO who infamously feuded with Trump after leaving his administration, alone has an estimated net worth of around $819 billion, Forbes. reports.
Cook, who recently announced that he planned to step down as the CEO of Apple, has a net worth of $2.9 billion.
Huang, whose company is a key player in the global A.I. race, was welcomed onto Air Force One late on Tuesday.
After seeing reports that Huang was not coming, Trump reportedly called him on Tuesday morning and extended an invitation, a person familiar with the conversation told The New York Times.
Executives from Boeing, Cargill, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Mastercard, Meta and Visa are also joining the trip.
Outside the world of tech and finance, Hollywood director Brett Ratner was also spotted by reporters aboard Air Force One as Trump jetted off to China on Tuesday.
