Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su have joined the advisory board of Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management (SEM), placing two of the global AI chip industry's most senior executives in a formal role at one of Beijing's most influential academic institutions.

The appointments, reported by DIGITIMES on September 30, 2026, from Taipei, put the heads of the two leading designers of AI accelerators closer to Beijing at a moment when semiconductor policy, export controls, and academic-industrial ties sit at the center of US-China technology competition.

Who joined, and where

Huang founded Nvidia and continues to serve as its chief executive. Su holds the positions of chair and CEO at AMD. Both companies design the graphics processors and accelerated computing platforms that underpin most large-scale AI training and inference infrastructure worldwide.

Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management operates an advisory board composed of prominent figures from global business and academia. The board provides guidance to the school on strategy and development. By joining it, Huang and Su take on institutional links to a Chinese university that has long served as a training ground for the country's political and corporate leadership — including many figures in China's technology sector.

Why the timing matters

The move carries weight well beyond academic ceremony. Both Nvidia and AMD sell — or have sought to sell — AI chips into the Chinese market, and both have operated under shifting US export control regimes that govern which advanced accelerators may ship to China. Advisory positions at a Beijing institution give the executives a formal channel of engagement with Chinese academia and, by extension, with the networks of researchers, alumni, and policymakers connected to it.

For Tsinghua, the addition of Huang and Su brings direct access to the leadership of the two US companies that dominate AI accelerator design. For the executives, the roles signal continued commitment to the Chinese market despite the regulatory friction that has repeatedly reshaped it.

The wider context

The appointments arrive amid a broader reordering of the AI chip supply chain. Nvidia's accelerators anchor most hyperscale AI deployments, while AMD has pushed into the same market with its Instinct platform, signing supply and co-development agreements with major cloud and system partners. China remains one of the largest potential markets for both firms, even as domestic Chinese accelerator vendors expand under state-backed programs.

Against that backdrop, formal roles at a top Chinese university function as a form of long-term positioning. Advisory board seats do not transfer technology or grant commercial rights. They do, however, institutionalize relationships — with faculty, with alumni in industry and government, and with the university's extensive network of corporate partners.

What to watch

The immediate practical consequences of the appointments are limited: advisory boards typically meet on a periodic schedule and offer counsel rather than direct operational input. The significance lies in the signal. The two most powerful executives in AI silicon now hold named positions at China's most politically connected university, a fact that both Beijing and Washington will read through the lens of the ongoing technology rivalry.

How the roles evolve — whether the executives attend board sessions in Beijing, and how US regulators respond, if at all — will determine whether this remains a symbolic affiliation or becomes a substantive channel between Silicon Valley's AI chip leaders and one of China's premier institutions.