Huawei will launch AI processors to compete Nvidia in China
Huawei Technologies Co. is poised to introduce new AI technology this week, challenging US export control restrictions and furthering its goal to supplant Nvidia Corp. in China while striving for competitiveness on the global stage. Huawei’s rotating chairman Wang Tao is set to unveil the forthcoming Ascend 960 AI chips, which are projected to be commercially available in 2027, during the company’s annual summit in Shanghai on Thursday. Some critical details that analysts will monitor include whether the new component will possess sufficient power for training cutting-edge AI models. Huawei aims to enable its Ascend chips to support every AI model, both domestically and internationally, as stated by Chairman Guo Ping during a recent internal meeting with new employees. “We are closing the gap by innovating chip architectures,” Guo said. “Apple was not a leader in making processors at the beginning, but they delivered exceptional user experience through architecture redesigns and software optimisation.”
Huawei has already been establishing a presence both domestically and internationally. DeepSeek is set to deploy a minimum of 160,000 Huawei Ascend 950DT chips at a data center under construction in Inner Mongolia to facilitate the operation of its models. Huawei is also exploring foreign markets, including Malaysia and Egypt, as reported. The Chinese telecom-to-smartphone firm is leading Beijing’s initiative for self-sufficiency in essential technologies, responding to prolonged US restrictions designed to undermine China’s ambitions in chipmaking. It is also spearheading a Beijing-supported initiative to promote the Chinese technology stack internationally during a period when the two global superpowers are competing for geopolitical supremacy across various regions. Ascend 960 will succeed Huawei’s current Ascend 950 family of AI accelerators, with the 950DT favoured by DeepSeek featuring faster, higher-capacity memory tailored for demanding AI inference workloads. Another upgraded iteration, Ascend 970, is already planned for 2028, as the Shenzhen-based company previously announced during the launch of a three-year campaign aimed at surpassing Nvidia. Each successive generation of chips is poised to double the computing power of the one that came before it. However, Huawei’s AI chips are lagging behind Nvidia’s superior products.
Frontier Chinese AI labs such as DeepSeek continue to depend significantly on chips from US companies for the training of their models, which are subsequently run using a greater proportion of domestic semiconductors. This situation highlights the difficulties that Beijing encounters in its efforts to fully detach from Western technology. Simultaneously, Nvidia’s most advanced silicon continues to enter China through smuggling, though in limited amounts. A constraint in production capacity is also hindering Huawei from meeting the surging demand for computing power in a market that Morgan Stanley estimates could reach 646 billion yuan by 2030. Nvidia’s most advanced Blackwell processors are not directly accessible in China. Huawei has recently increased the price of the Ascend 950DT chip by 60 percent, attributing this decision to a constrained supply of components in discussions with its customers. To address its shortcomings, Huawei has been exploring innovative approaches, such as the recently unveiled LogicFolding technique, aimed at enhancing its chip technology despite the absence of top-tier equipment.
Huawei has introduced a SuperPod structure that will soon allow for the linking of up to 100,000 Ascend chips in a cluster, facilitating faster data transmission through its UnifiedBus networking protocol. The company asserts that its adaptations and networking capabilities can compensate for deficiencies in single-chip performance when compared to competitors such as Nvidia. “System-level competitiveness matters more than ever,” said analyst Charlie Chan in a recent research note. “The effective gap is narrowing through multi-die design, advanced packaging, rack-scale system architecture, optical networking, and software-hardware co-optimisation,” Chan wrote. Huawei is also advancing in various other areas. Ascend 950 chips represent Huawei’s inaugural foray into AI accelerators utilising memory chips developed internally. However, the company has disclosed minimal information regarding production specifics. The Shenzhen electronics giant and other Chinese AI chipmakers have been restricted from accessing the latest AI memory products from South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., as well as US-based Micron Technology Inc., due to US export controls.
