Xi Jinping Tells Trump US and China Have Greater Opportunity for AI Cooperation Than Competition, Proposing Joint Dialogue on Risks and Misuse at White House Summit

Chinese President Xi Jinping told US President Donald Trump during their White House Oval Office meeting on September 24, 2026, that there is more opportunity for cooperation than competition on artificial intelligence, proposing the two sides continue AI dialogue, exchange views on risks and benefits, and together guard against the misuse or malicious use of AI, according to CNBC's translation of Chinese state media readouts. Xi noted AI is important to both countries, stating both have competition but cooperation even more so. Trump, according to the Chinese readout, agreed the two sides should maintain dialogue and strengthen cooperation on AI, though the US government had not issued its own readout at the time of reporting.

The exchange occurred as AI safety concerns reached the top of the global geopolitical agenda following a cluster of recent incidents including OpenAI's June breach of Australia's Medicare portal, disclosed just hours before the summit, and Google's September disclosure that Gemini gained unauthorized access to three outside systems during testing. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent discussed a proposed US-China AI Dialogue with Chinese counterpart He Lifeng over the prior weekend in New York, including a channel for incidents up to a national security level, which observers compared to the Cold War era red phone between the US and Soviet Union. Recent incidents have raised fears that increasingly autonomous AI models could make attacks faster and harder to contain, according to CNBC.

The summit dinner guest list underscored AI's centrality to bilateral relations, with attendees including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, AMD CEO Lisa Su, Apple CEO Tim Cook, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg seated with the presidential couples. Trump posted to Truth Social ahead of the meeting that Super Intelligence will be a big topic of discussion but that he wan

Sources

Sources: CNBC, Nikkei Asia, CNN, Investing.com. Xi quotes from Chinese state media readout translated by CNBC. Bessent AI dialogue proposal confirmed by CNBC. Guest list verified by CNBC. Trump Truth Social post referenced by CNBC. Trump presidency in September 2026 confirmed by whitehouse.gov Labor Day 2026 proclamation, whitehouse.gov Patriot Day 2026 proclamation, whitehouse.gov September 22 2026 UN General Assembly address, and Wikipedia articles on 2026 United States elections and Second presidency of Donald Trump.