In view of the phenomenon of short-term debt for long-term investment of China's listed companies, this paper studies the role of institutional investors in it. Based on the data of listed companies from 2007 to 2019, we find that institutional investors promoted more short-term debt for long-term investment in listed companies and the effect is more obvious in non-state-owned enterprises. Further research shows that the promotion effect is remarkable only when the institutional investors are non-independent ones, and the number of institutional investors also aggravates the phenomenon. This paper examines the impact of institutional investors on debt risk of listed companies from the perspective of short-term debt for long-term investment, which provides a reference for the governance of short-term debt for long-term investment behavior, further promotes the development of independent institutional investors and improves the supervision of institutional investors.