# He Tingbo

Director, Huawei. TIME100 AI 2026, Leaders. After US sanctions hit Huawei, China's 'chip queen' told staff in a 2019 letter that her chip unit was building a backup lifeline for Huawei and the whole country. ([english.aaj.tv](https://english.aaj.tv/news/330459486))

- Born: 1969, Changsha, Hunan, China ([zh.wikipedia.org](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BD%95%E5%BA%AD%E6%B3%A2))
- Education: Master's, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications ([zh.wikipedia.org](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BD%95%E5%BA%AD%E6%B3%A2))
- Career: Huawei (Board Director; President, Semiconductor Business Department, 1996 to now) ([huawei.com](https://www.huawei.com/en/executives/board-of-directors/he-tingbo), [zh.wikipedia.org](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BD%95%E5%BA%AD%E6%B3%A2))
- TIME profile: https://time.com/collection/time100-ai/2026/he-tingbo/
- Profile: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/most-influential-people-in-ai/he-tingbo

- Joined Huawei as an engineer in 1996, straight after a master's degree at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. ([zh.wikipedia.org](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BD%95%E5%BA%AD%E6%B3%A2))
- In 1998 she moved to Shanghai to build a wireless chip team from scratch, working on 3G chips. ([english.elpais.com](https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2026-06-15/he-tingbo-the-woman-who-wants-to-change-the-chip-industry.html))
- Was put in charge of Huawei's chip development in 2003 with a $400 million annual budget, the start of what became HiSilicon. ([reuters.com](https://www.reuters.com/world/china/huaweis-chip-queen-etches-her-name-chinas-tech-folklore-2026-05-25/))
- When the US blacklisted Huawei in May 2019, she told staff that backup chips her team had built for years would be switched on overnight. ([reuters.com](https://www.reuters.com/world/china/huaweis-chip-queen-etches-her-name-chinas-tech-folklore-2026-05-25/))
- In 2026 she unveiled the Tau Scaling Law, Huawei's alternative to Moore's Law, saying it was used to design and mass-produce 381 chips in six years. ([huawei.com](https://www.huawei.com/en/news/2026/5/ieee-iscas-tau-scaling))