Top U.S. executives, including Tesla’s Elon Musk and Apple’s Tim Cook, will accompany U.S. President Donald Trump on his visit to China this week, a White House official said Monday.

Beijing has said it is ready to work with the United States in pursuit of “more stability” and confirmed that Trump will visit, the first US president to do so since 2017. His trip runs from Wednesday to Friday.

Washington and Beijing have been at loggerheads over key issues ranging from trade tariffs to the Iran war to Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.

While in Beijing, Trump will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, with the countries’ myriad trade and economic issues on the table.

Trump and Xi agreed in October to a one-year truce in a blistering trade war that saw tariffs on many goods exceed 100 percent.

The U.S. president has been pressuring companies to build manufacturing facilities in the United States, a bid to both reduce imports and increase domestic economic activity.

Many top tech companies’ supply chains, however, heavily involve China, making them particularly exposed to bilateral trade tensions.

The United States has also sought to block China from accessing the highest-end artificial intelligence chips from US companies.

According to a list shared by a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, Musk and Cook will be accompanied by 15 other chief executive officers.

They include the chiefs of Boeing, GE Aerospace, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Mastercard and Visa.

Among tech companies, top executives from Cisco, Meta, Micron and Qualcomm will be on the trip, the official said.

Musk, the richest person in the world, heavily backed Trump on the campaign trail for his second term as US president, contributing more than $280 million.

The two had a public falling out in July last year, but appear to have since reconciled, with Musk reappearing in White House circles.

SpaceX is telling prospective investors its ​board will not need a majority of directors who are independent ⁠of the company, according to an excerpt of its IPO filing reviewed by Reuters, underscoring how founder Elon Musk is retaining control of the rocket and artificial intelligence maker.

In a departure from the ‌vast majority of public companies, SpaceX said it would maintain “controlled company status” after its $1.75 trillion IPO, expected this summer. That means it will not need ‌a majority of its board to be independent, nor will it need independent compensation and ‌nominating ⁠committees, the filing excerpt showed. It only must have an audit committee ⁠composed entirely of independent directors, the document stated.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX and its wholly-owned subsidiary xAI ​are competing in a secret new Pentagon contest ‌to produce voice-controlled, autonomous drone swarming technology, Bloomberg ​News reported on Monday, citing people ⁠familiar with the matter.

SpaceX, xAI and the Pentagon’s defense innovation unit did not immediately respond to requests ‌for comment. Reuters could not independently verify the report.

Texas-based SpaceX recently acquired xAI ‌in a deal that combined Musk’s major ‌space ⁠and defence contractor with the billionaire entrepreneur’s ⁠artificial intelligence startup. It occurred ahead of SpaceX’s planned initial public offering this year.

Musk’s companies are reportedly among a select ​few chosen to participate ‌in the $100 million prize challenge initiated in January, according to the Bloomberg report.

The six-month competition aims to produce advanced swarming technology that ‌can translate voice commands into digital instructions and ​run multiple drones, the report said.

Also Read | How drones are the new face of warfare

Musk was among a group of ⁠AI and robotics researchers who wrote an open letter in 2015 that advocated a global ban ‌on “offensive autonomous weapons,” arguing against making “new tools for killing people.”

The U.S. Defense Secretary last year outlined a new strategy to accelerate drone development and deployment by aiming to cut bureaucracy and boost domestic drone manufacturing.

The U.S. also has ‌been seeking safe and cost-effective ways to neutralize drones, particularly ​around airports and large sporting events – a concern that has become more urgent ⁠ahead of the FIFA World Cup and America250 anniversary ⁠celebrations this summer.

OpenAI, Alphabet’s Google, Anthropic and xAI last year won contracts that are ‌worth up to $200 million each and aimed at scaling up adoption of advanced AI ​capabilities in the Pentagon.

SpaceX is putting its longstanding focus of sending humans to Mars on the back burner to prioritise establishing a settlement on the Moon, founder Elon Musk said Sunday (February 8, 2026).

The South Africa-born billionaire’s space company has found massive success as a NASA contractor, but critics have for years panned Mr. Musk’s Mars colonisation plans as overambitious.

The move also puts Mr. Musk in alignment with U.S. President Donald Trump’s shift away from sending Americans to Mars.

“For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years,” Mr. Musk said in a post on X, the social media platform he bought in 2022.

Difficulties in reaching Mars include the fact that “it is only possible to travel to Mars when the planets align every 26 months.”

“We can launch to the Moon every 10 days,” he added.

Mr. Musk has blown through several previous estimates on when he could feasibly put man on the Red Planet.

In 2016, Mr. Musk said passengers could take off for Mars as soon as 2024, if financing and other planning factors for his rockets came through.

That prediction came after he told the Wall Street Journal in 2011 that SpaceX astronauts would reach Mars in “Best case, 10 years, worst case, 15 to 20 years.”

In an executive order on U.S. space policy late last year, Mr. Trump said he wanted to get Americans to the Moon by 2028, under NASA’s Artemis program, for which SpaceX is a contractor.

That marked a shift from Mr. Trump’s earlier declaration that he wanted to plant the American flag on Mars before the end of his four-year term.

Americans are currently scheduled to return to the Moon’s surface in mid-2027 on the Artemis 3 mission, but the timeline has been repeatedly pushed back.

Industry experts say it will probably be delayed again because the lunar lander in development at SpaceX is not ready.

Easier access to the Moon “means we can iterate much faster to complete a Moon city than a Mars city,” Mr. Musk said Sunday (February 8, 2026).

But he added that SpaceX would not give up on its Mars plans, saying it would “also strive to build a Mars city and begin doing so in about 5 to 7 years.”

SpaceX is putting its longstanding focus of sending humans to Mars on the back burner to prioritise establishing a settlement on the Moon, founder Elon Musk said Sunday (February 8, 2026).

The South Africa-born billionaire’s space company has found massive success as a NASA contractor, but critics have for years panned Mr. Musk’s Mars colonisation plans as overambitious.

The move also puts Mr. Musk in alignment with U.S. President Donald Trump’s shift away from sending Americans to Mars.

“For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years,” Mr. Musk said in a post on X, the social media platform he bought in 2022.

Difficulties in reaching Mars include the fact that “it is only possible to travel to Mars when the planets align every 26 months.”

“We can launch to the Moon every 10 days,” he added.

Mr. Musk has blown through several previous estimates on when he could feasibly put man on the Red Planet.

In 2016, Mr. Musk said passengers could take off for Mars as soon as 2024, if financing and other planning factors for his rockets came through.

That prediction came after he told the Wall Street Journal in 2011 that SpaceX astronauts would reach Mars in “Best case, 10 years, worst case, 15 to 20 years.”

In an executive order on U.S. space policy late last year, Mr. Trump said he wanted to get Americans to the Moon by 2028, under NASA’s Artemis program, for which SpaceX is a contractor.

That marked a shift from Mr. Trump’s earlier declaration that he wanted to plant the American flag on Mars before the end of his four-year term.

Americans are currently scheduled to return to the Moon’s surface in mid-2027 on the Artemis 3 mission, but the timeline has been repeatedly pushed back.

Industry experts say it will probably be delayed again because the lunar lander in development at SpaceX is not ready.

Easier access to the Moon “means we can iterate much faster to complete a Moon city than a Mars city,” Mr. Musk said Sunday (February 8, 2026).

But he added that SpaceX would not give up on its Mars plans, saying it would “also strive to build a Mars city and begin doing so in about 5 to 7 years.”

Elon Musk’s platform X on Wednesday (January 14, 2026) announced measures to prevent its AI chatbot Grok from undressing images of real people, following global backlash over its generation of sexualized photos of women and children.

The announcement comes after California’s attorney general launched an investigation into Mr. Musk’s xAI — the developer of Grok — over the sexually explicit material and multiple countries either blocked access to the chatbot or launched their own probes.

X said it will “geoblock the ability” of all Grok and X users to create images of people in “bikinis, underwear, and similar attire” in those jurisdictions where such actions are deemed illegal.

“We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis,” X’s safety team said in a statement.

“This restriction applies to all users, including paid subscribers.”

In an “extra layer of protection,” image creation and the ability to edit photos via X’s Grok account was now only available to paid subscribers, the statement added.

The European Commission, which acts as the EU’s digital watchdog, earlier said it had taken note of “additional measures X is taking to ban Grok from generating sexualised images of women and children.”

“We will carefully assess these changes to make sure they effectively protect citizens in the EU,” European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said in a statement, which followed sharp criticism over the nonconsensual undressed images.

‘Shocking’

Global pressure had been building on xAI to rein in Grok after its so-called “Spicy Mode” feature allowed users to create sexualized deepfakes of women and children using simple text prompts such as “put her in a bikini” or “remove her clothes.”

“The avalanche of reports detailing the non-consensual, sexually explicit material that xAI has produced and posted online in recent weeks is shocking,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said earlier on Wednesday (January 14).

“We have zero tolerance for the AI-based creation and dissemination of nonconsensual intimate images or of child sexual abuse material.”

Mr. Bonta said the California investigation would determine whether xAI violated state law after the explicit imagery was “used to harass people across the internet.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom said that xAI’s “vile” decision to allow sexually explicit deepfakes to proliferate prompted him to urge the attorney general to hold the company accountable.

Further adding pressure onto Mr. Musk’s company on Wednesday (January 14), a coalition of 28 civil society groups submitted open letters to the CEOs of Apple and Google, urging them to ban Grok and X from their app stores amid the surge in sexualized images.

Indonesia on Saturday (January 10) became the first country to block access to Grok entirely, with neighbouring Malaysia following on Sunday (January 11).

India said on Sunday (January 11) that X had removed thousands of posts and hundreds of user accounts in response to its complaints.

Britain’s Ofcom media regulator said on Monday (January 12) it was opening a probe into whether X failed to comply with U.K. law over the sexual images.

And France’s commissioner for children Sarah El Hairy said on Tuesday (January 13) she had referred Grok’s generated images to French prosecutors, the Arcom media regulator and the European Union.

Last week, an analysis of more than 20,000 Grok-generated images by Paris non-profit AI Forensics found that more than half depicted “individuals in minimal attire” — most of them women, and two percent appearing to be minors.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said his partner Shivon Zilis is “half-Indian” and one of their children’s middle name is ‘Sekhar’ after the Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.

“One of my sons with her is, his middle name is Sekhar, after Chandrasekhar,” Mr. Musk said in an interview with investor and entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath on his show ‘People by WTF’.

S Chandrasekhar was a renowned Indian-American astrophysicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 “for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars”.

When asked if Ms. Zilis had spent any time in India, Mr. Musk said she was given up for adoption when she was a baby and grew up in Canada. “I think her father was like an exchange student at the university, or something like that. I’m not sure of the exact details, but, just kind of thing where I don’t know… she was given up for adoption,” he said.

Mr. Musk has four children with Ms. Zilis – twins Strider and Azure, a daughter Arcadia and son Seldon Lycurgus. Ms. Zilis is a director of operations and special projects at one of Mr. Musk’s companies Neuralink.