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    $ILMN may be one of the strangest Trump–Xi summit trades hiding in plain sight


    I'm a regarded security guard who makes 18.50 an hour, so hear me out.

    Trump is in China meeting Xi, and he brought a bunch of the boiz with him. Apple, Tesla, Nvidia, Boeing, BlackRock, etc.

    But the one outlier??? Illumina. $ILMN.

    A gene sequencing company with a market cap that looks hilariously tiny next to basically everyone else in that group. Unless I’m missing someone, ILMN looks like the smallest public-company name in the delegation by a mile.

    So why the hell is Illumina’s CEO there?

    China asked, begged, and pleaded. and Trump was forced to put very minor celebrity "good guy lex luthor" on the plane.

    https://youtube.com/shorts/Vz96AX22Pt8

    Illumina got put on China’s Unreliable Entities List. China later eased the outright equipment ban, but ILMN is still stuck on the list, and sales there are still a major unresolved problem for the company.

    Now suddenly the CEO is in the room during a Trump/Xi summit where U.S. companies are clearly trying to get China business wins.

    Illumina’s official comment was basically corporate-speak about being “honored” to join and “shape the future of precision medicine,” but come on. They are the only life sciences/medtech CEO in the delegation while Big Pharma is nowhere to be found.

    Could China have wanted Illumina at the table because removing them from the UEL, or giving them some kind of China relief, could be part of the summit/trade package.

    $ILMN could absolutely fucking soar.

    Why is the CEO of a relatively small gene sequencing company sitting with Trump’s mega-cap CEO Avengers squad in China right now.

    Because Illumina’s China issue is on the menu

    Positions: ILMN 160 weeklies, gonna load up on June calls and 2027 leaps tomorrow

    $ILMN may be one of the strangest Trump–Xi summit trades hiding in plain sight
    byu/Actawesome inwallstreetbets



    Posted by Actawesome

    27 Comments

    2. voxpopper on

      Gyna is the global leader in CRISPR technology these days. U.S. wants/needs to be a major player in that space as well. Someone probably asked Gen AI what that most important advances and industries were for the 50 years and the guest list was created based on it.
      (I’ll do some due diligence on it either way)

    6. trsx5 on

      idk shit about the space or the ticker.. but if Trump’s touting it then might be a good play. What are your strikes?

    8. xbitxfatxstonkx on

      This might be that needle in the haystack we need. Thanks. Woohoo. I’m excited.

    12. Hopeful-World5650 on

      Extremely well thought out, entirely rational, makes 100% sense.

      Believe it or not, puts.

    13. Memeseek69 on

      All these dictators are getting old – Putin, Xi, Trump, probably some other super manly strong men too. I’d argue more than Xi wants some collaboration (stealing) with the tech that illumina is working on.

    15. imunfair on

      > So why the hell is Illumina’s CEO there?
      >
      > Here’s my theory:
      >
      > China asked for him.

      Alternatively the CEO made a “contribution” to Trump to get on the list, either for business purposes or to raise the company’s profile via the sort of speculation you’re making.

    21. shepherd_eyes on

      Because he thinks that this guy is actually the CEO of the Illuminati, not Illumina

    23. Pale-Willingness5198 on

      China is 5-6% of ILMNs revenue. It would be a casual bump if they achieve a UEL breakthrough.

    27. Flimsy-Floor5613 on

      I swore I would not touch Biotech again and here you are making me hold shares in a company I had never heard of 5 minutes ago

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