Why is Elon Musk with Trump for the Xi summit?

As we mentioned, President Trump is bringing some high-profile executives on his trip. That includes NVIDIA's Jensen Huang and Apple's Tim Cook. The president once called him Tim Apple, which just tickles me. He also brought Tesla's Elon Musk, as well as others. Let's bring in CBS News contributor Patrick McGee. He's also the author of the New York Times bestseller Apple in China. Patrick, good morning. So what do you expect these executives to discuss in this trip, specifically when it comes to artificial intelligence and its power and what it can do? Because the U.S. promotes open-source technology, while China is much more secretive about how its A.I. works. Is any of that likely to change? You know, I think the proper framing here is that this is the first summit in Beijing since 2017. And you think about what's happened in those eight years, nine years. The U.S. is in a pretty weakened state. Having 17 of the world's biggest company CEOs on your side is basically a show of strength. To some extent, it is meant to disguise some of the weaker points that the U.S. has to play right now, right? Trump is someone who talks about actively, you know, what cards do you have? And the card that the U.S. has is the corporate strength and the semiconductor strength. So he's trying to bring these CEOs on board to really gear the discussions towards something that's transactional, right? You don't really want to get caught up over the Iran war, which isn't going all that swimmingly well. And you certainly don't want to get so caught up with the Taiwan issue, which is existential for that country. So the more that you can gear this towards transactions and things to do with semiconductors, the better. The risk, however, is that Xi Jinping, of course, knows all of this. And he may very well be seeking concessions on Taiwan in exchange for a major corporate deal. Help us understand how rare earth minerals and the raw material needed to build, construct the building blocks of A.I. helps China have the advantage in this A.I. race. So rare earths are just an area where China has just enormous strength. I mean, these are choke points for the global economy. And China has dominance not just in the mining, but the processing and refining of rare earths. So, I mean, they are used in semiconductors and smartphones and electronics. You know, when Xi Jinping basically put export controls on rare earths last year, a Ford production line came to a halt. So, you know, that was really quite a concerning play. And I think the U.S. has sometimes been in fantasy land thinking that this is something we can change in a matter of months or even a matter of a few short years. The dominance that China has in rare earths is really quite concerning, which is another reason why you would want to bring the leverage that we have on the semiconductor side. But, you know, just think of how important rare earths are for any consumer electronics that you can think of. And then extend the facts that they're also important for dual use technology and straight up military technology. So an F-35 has 900 kilograms of rare earths inside and a submarine has far more than that. So cutting off access to rare earths is something that should scare the wits out of people in Washington. And it's frankly why Trump essentially abandoned much of this tariff talk last year when Beijing pulled that card. Yeah. And I'm curious, coming out of these meetings, how much each side will say about what they agree on when it comes to A.I. production and implementation, because you can't even get the top manufacturers of A.I. systems to agree on a code of ethics. You know, in the past few years, that was something that was attempted and failed to materialize. What are you watching for to signal that on the A.I. front, there is some type of framework agreement coming out of this? You know, it's the A.I. issue is a really tough one. I'm not sure exactly that we should be thinking of something like a grand bargain or something of a big deal. I try to think of this the way a marriage counselor might. This is a relationship where the couples are sleeping in separate rooms and are basically going through the custody arrangements of who gets access to what portion of the supply chain. We shouldn't be thinking about a grand bargain. We should be thinking about harm reduction. Right. We're worried that one spouse might want to burn the house down. That's the concern here. So I think we should all temper our expectations, because frankly, there's too much at risk here to have a major deal. I don't want to see a major concession. You know, people have called this the stalemate summit. And I think that's probably the best you want to have. You actually sort of want an extension of the status quo rather than really putting up, you know, Taiwan becoming a major issue. So, you know, A.I. can definitely be a point of agreement. But A.I. is the driving technology for the 21st century. It makes a lot of sense for Chinese companies to have Nvidia chips that will extend their own efforts. But they also don't want to be hooked on a U.S. tech ecosystem. And Beijing really knows that very well. That's a grim picture and relationship you paint there, Patrick. It reminds me of that mad TV skit called Lowered Expectations, the dating show where the people were not what you wanted. But thank you for your insight. We appreciate it. Patrick McGee. Thanks, Errol.