Bezos, Musk, and Altman at Trump's Table with Xi.. "The Most Important Invitation in Washington"

A number of prominent technology and business leaders in the United States have received invitations to the state dinner hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House for Chinese President Xi Jinping on September 24.

The guest list includes Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, according to a U.S. official who revealed details of the list on Friday. The invitations also include Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell, and Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser.

Tim Cook, who stepped down as CEO of Apple last month, also received a seat.

Musk, Huang, Cook, and Fraser accompanied Trump during his visit to Beijing, where they participated in a lavish banquet hosted by Xi for the U.S. president at the Great Hall of the People.

Xi is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Wednesday, with expectations that Trump will personally greet him upon the landing of his plane at Joint Base Andrews. The main bilateral summit meetings are set for the following day, while the state dinner will take place on Thursday evening.

This is the second official reception of its kind hosted by Trump and First Lady Melania Trump during his current term, following the visit of King Charles III and Queen Camilla last April.

A senior U.S. administration official involved in the preparations said, "The official dinner is the most important invitation in the city," noting that top politicians and leaders from the business and technology sectors are competing for a "very limited number of seats."

The official added, "This dinner is extremely important; China is the biggest of all, and everyone wants a place at the table."

The visit includes formal reception ceremonies, inspection of the honor guard, a special program for the two wives, in addition to the official dinner, which gives the visit a more luxurious character than the usual working visits made by heads of state.

Xi's visit comes at a time when relations between Washington and Beijing are experiencing increasing tensions, especially with the intensifying competition between the two countries for technological supremacy in the field of artificial intelligence.

It is also expected that a number of Chinese businessmen will participate in President Xi's delegation, which gives the state dinner an opportunity for informal communications between the two sides, in addition to the official talks.

Ambassador Monica Crowley, Chief of Protocol in the United States, stated that Trump and Melania "look forward to welcoming President Xi and Mrs. Peng to the United States for their first state visit in 11 years."

She added that "the grandeur of this three-day event reflects the importance of bilateral relations and the strategic issues affecting our countries and the world," noting that the details of the visit have been carefully prepared by the President and the First Lady.