Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang agreed to join the advisory board of the School of Economics and Management (SEM) at Tsinghua University in Beijing, the Financial Times reported on May 27, 2026 [1, 2, 3].
The SEM advisory board includes prominent US tech and finance leaders such as Tesla’s Elon Musk, Dell’s Michael Dell, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, and BlackRock’s Larry Fink [1, 2, 3]. Apple CEO Tim Cook serves as chair of the advisory board, which was established in October 2000 and currently has 65 members [1, 2, 3]. Board members typically meet annually in Beijing [1, 2, 3].
Tsinghua is an elite Chinese university attended by senior Chinese political figures, including President Xi Jinping [1, 2, 3]. Huang's appointment follows a US ban imposed in 2022 on exports of Nvidia's most advanced chips to China over military application concerns [1, 2, 3].
Despite a recent visit to China by former US President Donald Trump accompanied by Huang, there were no signs of progress in selling Nvidia’s advanced H200 AI chips to China [1, 2, 3]. Reuters could not independently verify the report of Huang’s board appointment at the time [1, 3]. Nvidia declined to comment and Tsinghua University did not immediately respond to requests for comment [1, 2, 3].
The SEM advisory board continues annual meetings in Beijing to advise on the school’s development and connections between technology and management sectors.
