BEIJING, April 29 (Reuters) - The chairman of Chinese

battery giant CATL Robin Zeng visited Elon Musk's

hotel in Beijing on Monday, a day after the Tesla CEO's surprise

arrival on a trip expected to involve talks on the rollout of

self-driving software.

Musk arrived in the Chinese capital on Sunday where he

was expected to discuss the rollout of Full Self-Driving (FSD)

software and permission to transfer driving data overseas,

according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

He met Chinese Premier Li Qiang and the organizer of the

ongoing Beijing auto show shortly after he landed but has yet to

disclose details of his other planned meetings.

On Monday morning, CATL Chairman Zeng was seen exiting an

elevator in the lobby of Musk's hotel, where he was greeted by

two top Tesla China executives, Tom Zhu and Grace Tao, a Reuters

witness said. Reuters could not immediately confirm with CATL if

Zeng met with Musk.

CATL is a key battery supplier to Tesla. Zeng and Musk

also met last year for dinner during Musk's last trip to China.

Musk said this month that Tesla may make FSD available

to customers in China "very soon," in response to a query on X.

The U.S. electric vehicle maker rolled out FSD, the most

autonomous version of its Autopilot software, four years ago but

has yet to make it available in China, its second-largest market

globally, despite customer demand.

Equity analysts at Wedbush called the surprise visit "a

major moment for Tesla."

Rival Chinese automakers such as Xpeng ( XPEV ) have been

seeking to gain an advantage over Tesla by rolling out similar

software.

Tesla has since 2021 stored all data collected by its

Chinese fleet in Shanghai as required by Chinese regulators and

has not transferred any back to the United States.

Musk is looking to obtain approval to transfer data

collected in the country abroad to train algorithms for its

autonomous driving technologies, the person said.

Musk's visit to China, first reported by Reuters, was not

flagged publicly and the person spoke on condition of anonymity

because they were not authorized to speak with media. Tesla has

not responded to requests for comment.