Elon Musk Set to Join Trump’s APEC Delegation in Shenzhen, Says Report

Elon Musk is expected to join President Donald Trump’s delegation to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen on November 18 and 19.

Mastercard chief executive Michael Miebach is also expected to make the trip, the South China Morning Post reported Tuesday, citing unnamed sources. Tesla and the White House have not confirmed the plans.

A return to China would put Musk back in Tesla’s most important overseas market. The Shanghai factory is the company’s highest-volume plant and its main export hub, and exports jumped 66% in October. Giga Shanghai builds the Model 3 and Model Y for buyers in China and for shipment abroad.

Shenzhen is one of China’s main technology hubs, and Tesla’s standing in the country still rests on a factory relationship few foreign automakers have matched, including permission to run Gigafactory Shanghai without a local partner.

It would also be Musk’s second trip to China with Trump this year. He accompanied the president to Beijing in May, a delegation that also included Miebach and Nvidia chief Jensen Huang.

Huang had been in talks to join this month’s trip as well, though his attendance is now in doubt. Nvidia’s board is investigating whether he was the target of a foreign intelligence operation, an allegation Beijing has called unsubstantiated. Asked Sunday whether he would take Huang on the Asia trip, Trump said, “I don’t know, but I’d certainly take him.”

The White House has not published a list of executives for the Shenzhen summit, so the report remains unconfirmed with a little more than a week to go.