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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to Join Beijing’s Tsinghua University Board

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is likely to join the advisory board of Tsinghua University's business school, chaired by Apple's Tim Cook
Nvidia Chief Jensen Huang with his employees
June 1, 2026 09:41 AM IST | Written by Supriya Singh | Edited by Vaibhav Jha

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will likely join the advisory board of Beijing based Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management (SEM), which is chaired by Apple CEO Tim Cook, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

 The move comes following Huang’s recent visit to Beijing where he joined US President Donald Trump’s trip to the country for a summit. Jensen’s visit had coincided with a commercial breakthrough as Nvidia’s H20 chip had just been cleared for export to China. However, a few weeks after his visit, China started a probe into H20 and imposed a de facto import ban. Later when the US cleared the more powerful H200, China did not budge.   

The H200 situation was already a paradox even before the summit started. Trump had announced in December 2025 that Nvidia could sell H200 chips to China, reversing a posture that the Biden administration had held through April 2025. 

A January 13, 2026 Commerce Department rule formalized the licensing framework, allowing case-by-case review of China export applications for Nvidia’s H200, AMD’s MI325X and similar chips. Reuters reported that Trump’s arrangement for H200 sales required the 

US government to receive 25% of revenue from the chip sales, structured through a routing requirement because US law does not permit direct export fees.

On May 14, Reuters reported that the US had cleared roughly ten Chinese firms, including Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and JD.com, to buy H200 chips. A handful of distributors including Lenovo and Foxconn were also cleared. Each cleared customer was permitted to purchase up to 75,000 chips under the licensing terms. However, not a single chip had been shipped as of May 15th at the summit’s conclusion.

The Chinese firms paused their orders following ‘guidance’ from Beijing. Reuters, citing sources, reported that pressure inside the Chinese government was building to block all purchases, partly over the routing requirement through US territory creating a risk of tampering. 

Also Read: Trump’s China Visit and Jensen’s Last Minute Hitchhike Fail to Resolve the AI Race

Authors

  • AI FrontPage Reporter Supriya Singh

    Supriya Singh is a Reporter at AI FrontPage covering the AI & Education and AI & Jobs beats. She brings six years of print and digital experience, including three years at The Asian Age, where she reported on higher education, Delhi government, and crime. She is based in Delhi-NCR.

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  • Vaibhav Jha, editor and co-founder at AI FrontPage

    Vaibhav Jha is an Editor and Co-founder of AI FrontPage. In his decade long career in journalism, Vaibhav has reported for publications including The Indian Express, Hindustan Times, and The New York Times, covering the intersection of technology, policy, and society. Outside work, he’s usually trying to persuade people to watch Anurag Kashyap films.

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