Topline
President Donald Trump is slated to host Chinese President Xi Jinping at a state dinner this week, where they’ll be joined by billionaire tech moguls collectively worth trillions of dollars amid a backdrop of warnings about AI potentially threatening human civilization.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks as U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump listen during a dinner at the State Dining Room of the White House on Sept. 4 2025.
Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
Key Facts
Trump and Xi will meet on Thursday and likely discuss AI, trade and tariffs as the U.S. and China have maintained tariffs against each other despite agreements that reduced the levies last year.
The White House will then hold a state dinner that evening featuring both presidents and several billionaire leaders of the world’s most valuable tech companies, several of whom are among the wealthiest people in the world.
Elon Musk, whose estimated net worth of $962.5 billion makes him the wealthiest person in the world by a massive magnitude, will reportedly attend.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, whose $374.3 billion fortune ranks as the largest behind Musk’s, will be at the dinner, as will world’s fourth-wealthiest person: Michael Dell ($271.5 billion).
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ($252.5 billion) will attend the dinner alongside Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang ($198.1 billion) and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella ($1.4 billion), according to Bloomberg, which noted Apple executive chairman and ex-CEO Tim Cook ($3.1 billion) will attend as well.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman ($3.3 billion) and president Greg Brockman ($25.5 billion) will be at the dinner, CNBC and Bloomberg reported, as will Google CEO Sundar Pichai ($1.6 billion).
WHAT WE DON’T KNOW
It is unclear if Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei ($15.5 billion), who urged top AI firms to slow down their model development, will be in attendance for the dinner, though he is slated to brief the United Nations Security Council alongside Altman on Wednesday, according to ABC News. Altman and Musk swiftly joined Amodei’s calls earlier this month for slowing the pace of frontier AI development.
NEWS PEG
Thursday’s dinner will be hosted after a senior researcher at Anthropic warned of a more than 10% chance AI could “kill all humans” within the next decade, provoking Amodei’s call for a slowdown.
Big Number
Over $2.2 trillion. That is the cumulative net worth of the tech moguls who will attend or are expected to attend the White House state dinner Thursday. Musk accounts for more than 40% of that sum.
WHAT OTHER BUSINESS LEADERS WILL ATTEND THE STATE DINNER?
Qualcomm chief Cristiano Amon is planning to attend, according to Bloomberg, as is Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, Politico reported.
Key Background
Jacob Coxon, who resigned as an Anthropic researcher early this month and previously worked for OpenAI, said in a tweet some AI companies were “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.” Coxon warned of “superhuman systems that can hack anything” but noted he was optimistic for AI companies to coordinate on safety. Days later, Amodei called for a slowdown on AI development, with both Altman and Musk echoing his warning to “pace the frontier.” Amodei identified some risks including the loss of control over infrastructure, cyberattacks, bioterrorism, economic disruption and takeover of the internet by autonomous AI agents. Trump, meanwhile, has doubled down on his support for AI development and said his administration will not “hinder or stifle” the AI industry despite warnings from experts. Trump has pushed for AI growth to continue at top speed, framing it as a race the U.S. must win against China.
Further Reading
Billionaire Anthropic CEO Urges Competitors To Slow Down AI Development (Forbes)
Anthropic Researcher Warns There’s ‘>10% Chance’ AI Could ‘Kill All Humans’ By Next Decade (Forbes)
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