India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks previous to a gathering with Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah at Istana Nurul Iman in Bandar Seri Begawan on September 4, 2024.
Dean Kassim | Afp | Getty Photographs
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is headed to Washington, D.C., for conferences with President Donald Trump and members of his administration, together with Elon Musk, to debate subjects reminiscent of efforts to keep away from a commerce warfare and synthetic intelligence coverage, CNBC has confirmed.
In his conferences with President Trump on Thursday, Modi will deal with the nation’s rising commerce deficit and current a menu of commerce concessions together with some tied to agriculture and medical units, in line with sources accustomed to the upcoming talks who requested to not be named as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk on the matter.
Modi and his crew can even sign India’s intent to purchase extra liquified pure gasoline from the U.S., a deal that may probably contain Cheniere Power. India already buys one-fifth of its LNG from the U.S. and is likely one of the world’s largest importers.
A senior official in Modi’s authorities advised CNBC that India is able to procure extra U.S. protection gear from Stryker, and to seek out different methods to accomplice with Washington on army drills within the Indian Ocean, the place China stays a lingering menace.
Whereas in Washington, Modi will spend time with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in addition to Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee to run the Commerce Division.
Modi can even have a one-on-one assembly with Musk, who’s overseeing the “Division of Authorities Effectivity,” with a deal with slashing federal packages and laws. Modi’s dialogue with the world’s richest particular person is anticipated to middle on AI coverage, Starlink’s growth into India and Tesla’s capacity to open up a plant within the nation, the federal government official stated.
A White Home spokesperson did not reply to CNBC’s request for remark.
On know-how, Modi and his crew can even reinforce their curiosity in shopping for high-performance graphics processing models (GPUs) from the U.S. and in avoiding any forthcoming export controls from the Trump administration. In a latest journey to Mumbai, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang expressed curiosity in partnering with India’s Reliance Industries to additional the nation’s AI efforts.
It will not be the primary assembly between the Indian chief and Musk.
Simply earlier than Modi’s state go to to Washington in 2023, Musk met with Modi in New York to talk about slashing electrical car import duties in India and different methods Tesla’s growth into India may turn into a actuality.
Tesla hasn’t publicly shared a plan to construct a manufacturing unit in India, and has as a substitute continued to deal with China. However India has turn into a giant development marketplace for U.S. tech.
Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Google and Amazon have pledged billions of {dollars} of funding in India’s development and to capitalize on the nation’s rising center class.
In line with analyst estimates, Apple now manufactures 10% to fifteen% of its iPhones in India, and CEO Tim Prepare dinner has recommended that the corporate is seeking to doubtlessly transfer extra manufacturing there. Apple additionally opened just a few retail shops in India in 2023.
For Modi, the journey represents a chance for a much-needed increase to his firm’s personal sector. The MSCI India exchange-traded fund has fallen 5% this 12 months and greater than 15% since late September. In the meantime, Chinese language shares have been rallying as rising market traders wager on the nation’s AI developments, significantly following latest experiences concerning the energy and effectivity of DeepSeek’s mannequin. The iShares MSCI China ETF is up 11% in 2025.
