Jensen Huang is playing both sides of the Taiwan Strait with a strategic flair that few tech CEOs can match. Days after accompanying US President Donald Trump on a state visit to Beijing, Nvidia’s chief executive has accepted a seat on the advisory board of Tsinghua University — China’s most prestigious institution. At the same time, Huang has pledged $150 billion to build a new headquarters in Taipei, a move that deepens the company’s reliance on Taiwanese manufacturing partners.
The Tsinghua appointment, first reported by the Financial Times, places Huang alongside an exclusive circle that includes Tim Cook (who chairs the board), Elon Musk, Satya Nadella, Mark Zuckerberg, Jamie Dimon and Larry Fink. Nvidia declined to comment on the report, and no official start date has been confirmed. But the timing is anything but coincidental. Xi Jinping, China’s president, is a Tsinghua alumnus.
A $4.6 Billion Hole in China
The backdrop is a market Nvidia once commanded. China accounted for roughly one-fifth of the company’s revenue before US export restrictions choked off sales of its most advanced chips. In the latest quarter, Nvidia booked zero data-centre revenue from China — a stark contrast with the $4.6 billion it generated there a year earlier.
Huang has responded with China-specific processors such as the H20 and the forthcoming B30A, hoping to skirt the export curbs. He has argued publicly that cutting off the Chinese market from Nvidia’s technology only strengthens Huawei, a rival that benefits from Beijing’s push for self-sufficiency. About ten Chinese companies have received clearance to buy the H200, but no deliveries have been made so far.
The Taipei Megacampus
Half a world away, Huang is doubling down on the island that builds his chips. On 27 May 2026, he unveiled plans for “Nvidia Constellation,” a new headquarters in the Beitou-Shilin Science Park in Taipei spanning roughly 700,000 square metres. Construction is set to begin later this year, with completion targeted for 2030.
The investment will more than quadruple Nvidia’s local workforce to 4,000 employees. The goal is tighter integration with the production lines of TSMC, Foxconn, Wistron and Quanta Computer. Industry data suggests Nvidia is on track to overtake Apple as TSMC’s largest customer by order volume.
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Record Numbers and a $80 Billion Payout
The two-pronged geopolitical push comes on the heels of an extraordinary financial quarter. Revenue for the first fiscal quarter of 2027 (ended April 2026) surged 85% year-on-year to $81.6 billion, propelled by a 92% jump in data-centre sales to $75.2 billion. Free cash flow alone reached $48.6 billion.
Management expects revenue of roughly $91 billion in the current quarter. The board has authorised an additional $80 billion in share buybacks and raised the quarterly dividend from $0.01 to $0.25 per share. Analysts have cheered the momentum: Rothschild & Co Redburn lifted its price target to $300, while Tigress Financial went to $425, both citing “parabolic” demand for AI infrastructure.
Despite the firepower, the stock trades at around $213 — about 10% below its all-time high of $236.54, though it has climbed roughly 13% since the start of the year. Sinking bond yields and sector rotation have weighed on the shares in recent weeks.
Software Cleanse After Two Decades
Amid the hardware expansion, Nvidia is quietly retiring a piece of its past. With the 610.47 WHQL driver update on 26 May, the company began phasing out the classic Nvidia Control Panel after 20 years. All features — 3D settings, overclocking, RTX controls — are migrating to the unified Nvidia App. The old panel remains available in the Microsoft Store for now but will receive no further updates or bug fixes.
Washington Is Watching
Huang’s growing presence in Beijing has already drawn attention from Republican China hawks in the US Congress. Defenders point to Tim Cook, who has sat on the same Tsinghua board for years without triggering regulatory blowback. Cook maintains deep ties with Chinese institutions and supply chains while navigating US rules with few visible collisions.
Whether Huang can strike the same balance will become clearer in the second half of 2026. For now, Nvidia is placing two enormous bets — one in Beijing’s corridors of power, the other in Taipei’s silicon foundries. The only certainty is that the stakes could hardly be higher.
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