Can Huawei’s AI chip could shake up Nvidia’s dominance?
Huawei Technologies is set to test its newest artificial-intelligence processor, the Ascend 910D, in a bid to rival Nvidia’s high-end products, according to an exclusive The Wall Street Journal article. The development underscores the resilience of China’s semiconductor industry despite U.S. efforts to restrict its access to Western chip-making equipment.
The Ascend 910D is expected to be more powerful than Nvidia’s H100 chip, released in 2022, said one of the people. Huawei has approached some Chinese tech companies to test the chip’s technical feasibility and is slated to receive the first batch of samples as early as late May. The company has previously developed the 910B and 910C versions of its Ascend AI processors.
Huawei’s advancements in AI chips are part of Beijing’s efforts to foster a self-sufficient semiconductor industry. The company has emerged as a champion in this field, developing substitutes for Nvidia’s AI chips. This year, Huawei is poised to ship over 800,000 Ascend 910B and 910C chips to customers, including state-owned telecommunications carriers and private AI developers like ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.
Some buyers have already expressed interest in increasing their orders of the 910C following the U.S. restrictions on Nvidia’s H20 chip sales in China. Nvidia announced it would take a $5.5 billion charge as a result of these restrictions. The restrictions present an opportunity for Huawei and other Chinese rivals like Cambricon Technologies to gain ground.
Despite manufacturing challenges, Huawei has managed to deliver some products comparable to Nvidia’s chips, albeit with a lag. The company faces hurdles in producing chips at scale due to being cut off from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the world’s largest chip foundry, and restrictions on accessing advanced chip-making equipment and key components like high-bandwidth memory units.
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In response, Huawei has focused on building more efficient and faster systems to leverage its chips. In April, the company introduced the CloudMatrix 384, a computing system connecting 384 Ascend 910C chips, which some analysts deemed more powerful than Nvidia’s flagship rack system under certain circumstances.
Industry practitioners note that connecting multiple chips in a system requires stable networks, software, and engineering to prevent network failures. Research firm SemiAnalysis commented that having more Ascend chips could offset their individual performance differences compared to Nvidia’s Blackwell chips, and that power deficiencies, while relevant, are not a limiting factor in China.