The AI chip market, led by NVIDIA, is crucial to the push toward generative AI and the age of AI PCs and AI-powered smart devices. However, with US trade restrictions on AI hardware, China and its tech giants are finding it increasingly challenging to source NVIDIA chips like the H100. This includes companies like ByteDance, Alibaba, and Baidu.
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With NVIDIA no longer able to ship its flagship gaming GPU, the GeForce RTX 4090, to the region, there’s room for a company like Huawei to step up and develop new AI hardware specifically for the Chinese market. The tech giant has hit the ground running, and its latest AI chip – the Ascend 910C – is currently being tested.
According to a new South China Morning Post report, Huawei is seeding its new Ascend 910C chip to local AI giants currently using NVIDIA’s H100 AI GPU. The Ascend 910C is apparently comparable to the H100 regarding raw performance, so it’s positioned as an alternative chip for China’s AI market.
Of course, there’s a lot more to AI than raw performance. One reason NVIDIA’s GPU tech is leading the AI charge is software, CUDA, optimizations, and tools built primarily for hardware like the H100.
Another hurdle for Huawei is production; the 910C’s predecessor, the Ascend 910B, saw its production affected by US sanctions on critical hardware and tools chipmakers use – including access to HBM chips. Huawei’s solution is to develop and manufacture everything in-house, so it will be interesting to see if it can replace NVIDIA as the go-to hardware maker for China’s tech giants.
NVIDIA won’t be sitting on the sidelines, either. The company is working on a new sanction-compliant B20 chip based on its Blackwell architecture for the Chinese market. However, the US government has expressed concerns about chipmakers like NVIDIA and Intel creating bespoke AI chips for the Chinese market, so there’s a chance that the guidelines and restrictions will change in the coming year.