Trump and Xi discuss AI superpower ambitions amid global rivalry

The world’s two largest economies are sitting down to talk about the technology that could define the rest of the century. Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are meeting in Washington on September 23-24, 2026, with artificial intelligence at the top of an already crowded agenda. Trump has framed the AI race in characteristically blunt terms, declaring that “whoever wins AI, wins” and claiming the US leads China “by a lot.” He’s also called AI’s impact “bigger than the industrial revolution.” Xi, for his part, has positioned AI as central to China’s economic and geopolitical strategy while pushing a narrative of cooperation to prevent the rivalry from spiraling into outright confrontation. The stakes behind the handshake This isn’t the first time the two leaders have broached the subject. Back in May 2026, Trump and Xi met in Beijing to discuss AI guardrails. That conversation produced no formal agreement. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng ahead of this week’s summit, working to finalize an AI dialogue channel between the two governments. One concrete item on the table: incident notification protocols, essentially a hotline-style system ...