Before Trump-Xi Summit, Musk Hails Xi and China's AI Supremacy

Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla, praised Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, describing him as a "great leader" with "significant capabilities," during an interview with China's official television network, just hours before the scheduled summit between Xi and his American counterpart, Donald Trump.

Musk said in an interview broadcast by CCTV's WeChat account and reported by the South China Morning Post: "He appears to be a great leader. China has experienced tremendous growth under his leadership, and I have seen it firsthand."

He added: "It is also clear, just by walking around the streets, that the standard of living for the average Chinese citizen has risen significantly. All of this has happened during President Xi's leadership, so it is evident he has performed exceptionally well and possesses great abilities."

Musk also lauded Chinese artificial intelligence models, ahead of Xi's upcoming visit to the United States for their second meeting this year.

Elon Musk’s Business Interests in China

Musk is expected to attend a White House dinner Thursday alongside several top executives from American tech companies, including Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI; Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA; and Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, according to Reuters.

Musk holds extensive business interests in China, where Tesla operates its largest manufacturing facility outside the United States in Shanghai. These ties have drawn scrutiny in Washington in recent years, particularly given Musk’s control over SpaceX, one of the key contractors with the U.S. Department of Defense and American intelligence agencies.

During the interview, Musk described Tesla’s Shanghai factory as a "jewel" and praised China’s manufacturing sector, stating that China "has strong and inherent manufacturing capabilities," adding that this is "not new to the current era."

He continued: "The Tesla team in China is incredibly talented, works hard, and is trustworthy. Quality is excellent, efficiency is excellent. The Tesla factory in Shanghai is a jewel."

Musk’s praise was not limited to Tesla-related manufacturing. Speaking to China’s official television, he said Chinese AI models are generally excellent, and that China "significantly outperforms" others in performance per unit of computing power.

Musk predicted China could overcome computing capacity constraints faster than many expect, saying: "My rough estimate is that China will address computing limitations related to semiconductor fabrication and chipmaking within about two or three years."

These remarks come weeks after U.S. authorities accused six Chinese AI firms, including DeepSeek and Alibaba, of conducting "aggressive and targeted" industrial-scale efforts to extract knowledge from AI models developed in the United States. Beijing rejected the allegations, calling them baseless.

A Billion Humanoid Robots Within a Decade

In discussing the future of technology, Musk predicted there would be "at least a billion humanoid robots within ten years," and discussed how physical and digital robots could boost individual productivity, according to the interview.

He also called for expanding education to help people formulate better questions for AI, noting that the proliferation of robots and AI would make these systems "eager to fulfill any request that comes to mind," with immediate execution expected.

Musk urged everyone to visit China, praising its high-speed trains, and said: "Any words I say will fail to do justice to China’s incredible grandeur. It is magnificent."