TBPN

Trump Rolls Deep in Beijing

May 13, 2026

Happy Wednesday.

We’re live on YouTube and 𝕏.

The current thing in tech and business is Trump arriving in Beijing with Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, and other high-profile CEOs for a summit with Xi Jinping.

Today’s lineup

Affirm Co-Founder & CEO Max Levchin at 12:00 PM
Varda Space Co-Founder and President Delian Asparouhov at 12:30 PM
Recursive CEO Richard Socher at 1:00 PM
Vori CEO Brandon Hill at 1:15 PM
TrueShort Founder & CEO Nate Tepper at 1:25 PM
Roadrunner Co-Founder & CEO Joubin Mirzadegan 1:35 PM
Nebius Co-Founder & Chief Business Officer Roman Chernin at 1:45 PM

Today’s Run of Show

Trump-Xi Summit

Tech leaders joined Donald Trump on his trip to China to meet with Xi Jinping. The high-level goal or “good ending” here is a set of discussions that lead to clean resolutions to both the Ukraine and Iran wars, but that’s a very high bar. Below that, there are tons of trade deals to hammer out. Tariffs have been going back and forth since Liberation Day, so most business leaders are hopeful that we could land in a stable place that sticks for at least a few quarters.

Here’s the full list of business leaders on the trip:

Elon Musk, Tesla / xAI / SpaceX
Tim Cook, Apple
Jensen Huang, Nvidia
Kelly Ortberg, Boeing
David Solomon, Goldman Sachs
Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone
Larry Fink, BlackRock
Jane Fraser, Citi
Dina Powell McCormick, Meta

Notably absent are key leaders from the leading AI labs: Demis Hassabis from Google DeepMind, Dario Amodei from Anthropic, and Sam Altman from OpenAI. These three each have their own complicated relationships with the federal government and Trump administration, so it’s not shocking they aren’t there, but it does feel like a disconnect between the conversation happening in Silicon Valley and the highest levels of geopolitics. Elon and Jensen have solid coverage of the key issues, but if you were looking for clarity on how the big questions of superintelligence will play out on the global stage in the AI 2027 “China Wakes Up” scenario… you’ll have to wait.

Inflation Bad

The latest inflation print from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, released yesterday, was pretty bad. US inflation increased 3.8% annually, up from 3.3% in March, making it the highest reading since May 2023. The inflation was driven by a 17.9% increase in energy costs. Doesn’t seem like we’re getting rate cuts anytime soon (the next Fed policy meeting is scheduled for mid-June).

Google Announces Chromebook Successor Googlebook

Yesterday Google announced a new laptop designed for Gemini Intelligence called the Googlebook. The device seems to be the successor to the Chromebook, which was developed for a cloud-first world; the Googlebook is clearly an answer to the AI boom.

Google’s announcement includes several videos of the device at work. Gemini appears to be deeply baked into the laptop — one new feature, for example, is the “Magic Pointer,” which activates when you wiggle the cursor, and displays contextual suggestions (like setting up a meeting if the cursor is over a date/time) and other AI-like intelligence about whatever’s on your screen.

Headlines

Bloomberg: Anduril Valued at $61 Billion in Round Led by Thrive, Andreessen

Bloomberg: Anthropic In Talks to Raise $30 Billion at $900 Billion Valuation

Trump, Elon, and Jensen arrive in Beijing via Air Force One

AI drug design startup Isomorphic Labs, founded by Demis Hassabis, raises $2.1B Series B

Delian on 𝕏: Only the free market will give us an orbital economy

WSJ: Data Centers in Space: A Pipe Dream, or AI’s Next Big Thing?

WSJ: Sam Altman’s Business Dealings Under GOP Scrutiny Ahead of OpenAI’s IPO

Google introduces Googlebook

Enhanced Radar raises $7M in round led by Initialized

Ryan Shea launches AI IQ, “frontier AI models, scored on the human IQ scale”

FT: Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin weighs first external fundraising