Nvidia and AMD chiefs join Tsinghua advisory board as US-China chip tensions persist

Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang and AMD chief Lisa Su have joined an influential advisory board at a prestigious Chinese university, placing the two key American AI tech leaders in a high-level forum known for connecting global executives with senior Chinese officials.

Huang and Su were among three new members appointed to the advisory board of Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management (SEM), alongside Marc Pictet, senior managing partner of Swiss wealth and assets manager Pictet Group, according to a post published on the school’s official social media channel on Tuesday.

Huang was introduced as founder at Nvidia, a company that “invented graphic processing units” and “ushered in the modern AI era”, while Su’s leadership successfully “transformed AMD into a leading high-performance and adaptive computing firm,” the Tsinghua school said in the post.

The appointment of Huang and Su comes after both were among US business executives who attended a White House state dinner during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington last week.

Huang’s appointment had been expected after the Nvidia chief reportedly accepted an invitation to join the Tsinghua board earlier this year.

Su’s joining means the leaders of the world’s two biggest suppliers of advanced AI chips will serve on the influential body at a time when semiconductors remain a major flashpoint in US-China tech tensions.

Both Nvidia and AMD have sought to maintain access to China, one of the world’s largest semiconductor markets, while navigating increasingly complicated restrictions imposed by both countries.

The appointments also underscore the continuing role of Tsinghua SEM’s advisory board as a channel connecting some of the world’s most powerful corporate executives with China, even as geopolitical tensions have complicated technology and investment ties between Beijing and Washington.

Established in 2000 with the backing of former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji, who was also the founding dean of Tsinghua SEM, the advisory board includes some of the world’s most prominent business executives, academics and economists.

Tsinghua describes the board as a platform for strengthening the school’s ties with the wider business and academic communities, while helping improve its research and teaching and supporting its ambition to become a world-class business school.

Last year, Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng met representatives of the board at Beijing’s Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, telling them he hoped they would continue to play a “bridging role” in supporting China’s economic development and exchanges with other countries, Tsinghua University said in a statement last year.

Five executives will also join the board as successors to previous members from their respective companies. They include BMW chairman Milan Nedeljković, Walmart president and CEO John Furner, Coca-Cola CEO Henrique Braun, General Atlantic co-president Martín Escobari and BP CEO Meg O’Neill, according to the school.

The school will hold its 27th annual advisory board meeting in Beijing on October 13 and 14.