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US President Donald Trump will bring chief executives of 16 large US companies on his upcoming visit to China, including Tesla's Elon Musk and Apple CEO Tim Cook, The New York Times reported on Monday, citing a White House list. Business leaders in the US delegation have significant business interests in China, with one US firm saying its chief executive is "honored to be part of the delegation," according to media reports. 

A Chinese expert said the inclusion of more high-tech and financial firms in the US delegation compared with Trump's 2017 visit to China sends a clear signal that importance is attached to cooperation in these areas. 

Other high-profile CEOs joining the US delegation include Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman, General Electric's Larry Culp, BlackRock's Larry Fink, Boeing's Kelly Ortberg, Meta's Dina Powell McCormick, and Micron's Sanjay Mehrotra, according to The New York Times.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang reportedly will not attend. Huang said on CNBC last week he would join the US President on the trip if he was invited, and Semafor reported he was among those angling for an invite, according to a Forbes report on Monday.

CBS News highlighted that the business leaders in the US delegation "have significant business interests in China."

"Together, the executives represent a swath of US business interests, from social media and consumer hardware, to computer chips and commercial manufacturing," BBC reported. 

A spokeswoman for Illumina, a biotechnology company based in California, said that its chief executive "is honored to be part of the delegation" and that the company hopes the trip will be "an opportunity to strengthen relationships and shape the future of precision medicine," according to the BBC.

A comparison of the US business delegation during Trump's upcoming visit this week and his visit to China in 2017 shows the importance the US attaches to cooperation with China in sectors including high-tech and finance, He Weiwen, a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"The US president has been pressuring companies to build manufacturing facilities in the US, a bid to both reduce imports and increase domestic economic activity. Many top tech companies' supply chains, however, are heavily dependent on China, making them particularly exposed to bilateral trade tensions," ABC News reported on Monday.

According to a report released by the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham China) on April 23, half of the surveyed US companies still rank China among their top three global investment destinations, while 79 percent of respondents hold a positive or neutral outlook on the future of China-US relations in 2026, up 30 percentage points from last year.

Recently, multiple US enterprises from sectors including electric vehicles and food and beverage posted sound performances in the Chinese market in the first quarter amid the country's better-than-expected economic growth and policy measures to effectively expand domestic demand.

For example, Tesla's deliveries of Model 3 and Model Y vehicles built at its Shanghai ⁠plant, including those exported to Europe and other markets, totaled 79,478 units in April, representing year-on-year growth of 36 percent, China Passenger Car Association data showed on Thursday.

US beverage giant Coca-Cola said its global unit case volume grew 3 percent in the first quarter of 2026, driven by markets including China, according to a release sent to the Global Times.