President Trump is traveling to China on May 14-15 with a delegation of 16 to 17 top business executives. It’s the first US presidential visit to the country in nearly a decade.
Among those making the trip: Tesla’s Elon Musk, Apple, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Boeing, and Citigroup. Five of the billionaires in the delegation have a combined net worth of roughly $870 billion.
Approximately 40% of the executives have ties to digital assets. Bitcoin rose 2% following the delegation announcement on May 11. BlackRock’s Fink has been a key figure in institutional crypto adoption, leading the firm’s spot Bitcoin ETF.
Trade negotiations are expected to cover agriculture, aviation, and semiconductors. For crypto, that means mining hardware. China dominates the global supply chain for the specialized chips powering Bitcoin mining. Any agreement easing technology tariffs could reduce costs for US-based mining firms.
Trump’s last visit to China was in 2017, during the early stages of what became a prolonged trade war. The delegation was originally scheduled for March 2026 but was delayed due to the US-Iran conflict.