Huawei’s AI chips take another step forward as Chinese firms look for Nvidia alternatives

Name: Huawei’s Mate XT trifold smartphone sparks frenzy, prompting sky-high resale prices
Uploaded: 2024-09-29T02:00:16.000Z
Duration: 2 min 53 s
Description: Huawei’s Mate XT trifold smartphone sparks frenzy, prompting sky-high resale prices

Huawei is sending out samples of its Ascend 910C processor for testing as the tech giant races to fill a void left by Nvidia

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Huawei has been positioning its Ascend 910 chips as a domestic alternative to Nvidia AI chips. Photo: Handout

Che Panin Beijing

Published: 10:00am, 29 Sep 2024

US-sanctioned Huawei Technologies has started testing a new artificial intelligence (AI) chip with potential clients in China as companies look for alternatives to high-end Nvidia chips, edging closer to another breakthrough in China’s self-sufficiency push in semiconductors despite US restrictions.

Huawei has offered samples of its Ascend 910C processor to large Chinese server companies for hardware testing and configuration, according to two sources briefed by the matter. The chip, an upgraded version of the 910B, is being offered to large Chinese internet firms, which are also major Nvidia customers, according to one of the sources, a distributor of Huawei AI chips.

Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Huawei has been racing to fill a void left by Nvidia after Washington banned the California-based chip designer from shipping its most sophisticated graphics processing units (GPUs) to China. The Ascend 910B chips, which Huawei has called on par with Nvidia’s popular A100 chips, have become a top alternative in multiple industries across the country. Its Ascend solutions were used to train roughly half of more than 70 of China’s top large language models as of last year, according to Huawei.

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Huawei’s Mate XT trifold smartphone sparks frenzy, prompting sky-high resale prices

The Chinese tech giant has closely guarded its progress in chip advancements, but it is clear that Huawei is building a support system for the domestic AI industry. Huawei rotating chairman Eric Xu Zhijun, said a week ago that Huawei has built two computing businesses in the past five years to create another option that can meet enterprises’ AI infrastructure needs.