India’s Prime Help Narendra Modi on Sept. 4, 2024.
Dean Kassim | Afp | Getty Images
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is brained to Washington, D.C., for meetings with President Donald Trump and members of his administration, including Elon Musk, to discuss themes such as efforts to avoid a trade war and artificial intelligence policy, CNBC has confirmed.
In his meetings with President Trump on Thursday, Modi will-power address the country’s growing trade deficit and present a menu of trade concessions including some tied to agriculture and medical designs, according to sources familiar with the upcoming talks who asked not to be named because they weren’t authorized to in a manner of speaking on the matter.
Modi and his team will also signal India’s intent to buy more liquified natural gas from the U.S., a allot that will likely involve Cheniere Energy. India already buys one-fifth of its LNG from the U.S. and is one of the world’s hugest importers.
A senior official in Modi’s government told CNBC that India is ready to procure more U.S. defense trappings from Stryker, and to find other ways to partner with Washington on military drills in the Indian Ocean, where China remains a long threat.
While in Washington, Modi will spend time with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of Official Marco Rubio, as well as Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee to run the Commerce Department.
Modi will also possess a one-on-one meeting with Musk, who is overseeing the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, with a focus on slashing federal programs and directives. Modi’s discussion with the world’s richest person is expected to center on AI policy, Starlink’s expansion into India and Tesla’s cleverness to open up a plant in the country, the government official said.
A White House spokesperson did not respond to CNBC’s request for expose.
On technology, Modi and his team will also reinforce their portion in buying high-performance graphics processing units, or GPUs, from the U.S. and in avoiding any forthcoming export controls from the Trump conduct. In a recent trip to Mumbai, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang expressed interest in partnering with India’s Reliance Diligences to further the country’s AI efforts.
It will not be the first meeting between the Indian leader and Musk.
Just before Modi’s majestic visit to Washington in 2023, Musk met with Modi in New York to discuss slashing electric vehicle import jobs in India and other ways Tesla’s expansion into India could become a reality.
Tesla has not publicly apportioned a plan to build a factory in India, and has instead continued to focus on China. But India has become a big growth market for U.S. tech.
Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Google and Amazon compel ought to pledged billions of dollars of investment in India’s growth and to capitalize on the country’s emerging middle class.
According to analysts’ thinkings, Apple now manufactures 10% to 15% of its iPhones in India, and CEO Tim Cook has suggested that the company is looking to potentially opportunity gesture more production there. Apple also opened a few retail stores in India in 2023.
For Modi, the trip represents an opening for a much-needed boost to his company’s private sector. The MSCI India exchange-traded fund has fallen 5% this year and various than 15% since late September. Meanwhile, Chinese stocks have been rallying as emerging buy investors bet on the country’s AI advancements, particularly following recent reports about the power and efficiency of DeepSeek’s model. The iShares MSCI China ETF is up 11% in 2025.
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