Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla , and Steve Schwarzman from BlackRock were among the attendees on Wednesday night at a grand reception and dinner held in San Francisco in honor of the visiting Chinese President, Xi Jinping.
Hosted by the U.S.-China Business Council and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, the dinner followed Xi’s daylong summit with President Joe Biden, which Biden called “some of the most constructive and productive discussions we’ve had.”
The dinner with President Xi proved to be a sought-after invitation for CEOs of some of America’s most influential companies, providing them with the opportunity to engage with high-profile government officials from a country that engaged in nearly $760 billion worth of trade with the United States the previous year.
Among the distinguished guests were notable figures such as Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce; Stan Deal, CEO of Boeing; Raj Subramaniam, CEO of FedEx; Ryan McInerney, Chief of Visa; Ray Dalio from Bridgewater Associates; Albert Bourla, Chairman and CEO of Pfizer; Merit Janow, Chair of Mastercard; and Larry Fink from BlackRock. the CEO of Tesla
Representing the Biden administration were Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, and Kurt Campbell, a key White House China advisor. San Francisco Mayor London Breed also held a prominent position at the head table.
According to the seating arrangement, Apple’s Tim Cook was positioned next to Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao. Event organizers noted that Elon Musk attended the VIP reception but did not stay for the dinner.