Trump Brings 12 CEOs, Nvidia’s Huang to Beijing as Ford $3 Billion Battery Plant Shows Who’s Really in Charge of EV Tech

President Donald Trump landed in Beijing Wednesday night with a delegation of over a dozen top American CEOs—including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Apple’s Tim Cook, and Tesla’s Elon Musk—for a high-stakes summit that will define trade, tech, and Taiwan policy for the next decade [148484][148640].

The visit, the first by a U.S. president in nine years, comes as new rules in Beijing allow China to punish companies that try to move factories out of the country [147949]. At the same time, a $3 billion Ford Motor battery plant in Michigan nearly complete—capable of powering 400,000 EVs per year—shows how even U.S. carmakers now depend on Chinese battery tech from partners like CATL [149087].

Talks between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday focused on four explosive issues: trade imbalances, technology competition, the Iran nuclear deal, and Taiwan [148679]. While Washington pushed for market access and a cut in fentanyl flows, Beijing insisted on stabilizing ties and reaffirmed its “one China” position on Taiwan [149079].

Across Asia, governments in Tokyo, Seoul, and South Asian capitals are watching nervously. The region relies on both superpowers for trade and investment, and any private deal between Trump and Xi could ignore smaller nations’ needs [147907][149147].

On the tech front, China is racing to break the U.S. “chokehold” on advanced chips. The eastern province of Zhejiang—home to Alibaba—just announced a five-year plan to make 3- to 7-nanometer AI chips, directly challenging American export controls [51155].

No major announcements have emerged from the Beijing meetings yet, but one thing is clear: the world’s two biggest economies are colliding over everything from rare earths to robots, and the summit’s outcome will reshape global supply chains for years [148721][147873].