Is Huawei’s AI chip ready to dethrone Nvidia in China? – MarketScreener
Huawei Technologies is preparing to launch the mass production of its advanced artificial intelligence chip, the 910C, for its Chinese customers as early as next month, according to information obtained by Bloomberg. Some deliveries have reportedly already been made.
This timing is good for Chinese companies in the AI sector, which are looking for local alternatives to Nvidia’s H20 chip, the main component that until recently was authorized for sale in China. This month, President Donald Trump’s administration informed Nvidia that sales of the H20 would now require an export license, which weighed heavily on the stock price of the leading US tech company.
Huawei’s 910C, a graphics processing unit (GPU), represents an architectural evolution rather than a technological breakthrough. It is said to achieve performance comparable to that of Nvidia’s H100 chip by combining two 910B processors in a single package using advanced integration techniques.
This configuration would double the computing power and memory capacity of the 910B model, while providing several incremental improvements, such as better support for the various types of data used in AI workloads. Huawei declined to comment on what it called speculation about the capabilities of the 910C and its delivery plans.
Huawei, Moore Threads, and Iluvatar CoreX rush into the opening
Washington, in its desire to curb Chinese technological development, particularly in the military field, has banned Beijing from accessing Nvidia’s most advanced AI products, including its flagship B200 chip. The H100, for example, had already been banned from the Chinese market in 2022, even before it went on sale.
This situation has paved the way for Huawei and other Chinese GPU startups, such as Moore Threads and Iluvatar CoreX, to enter a market long dominated by Nvidia.
According to Paul Triolo, a partner at consulting firm Albright Stonebridge Group, the latest US restrictions on H20 exports,
Mean that Huawei’s Ascend 910C GPU will now become the reference hardware for Chinese AI model developers and for the deployment of inference capabilities.
By the end of 2024, Huawei had distributed samples of the 910C to several technology companies and had begun taking orders, according to the same sources.
SMIC and TSMC in the loop?
While the manufacturers have not been identified with certainty, there are a few rumors circulating. Some major components of the GPU are reportedly being manufactured by the Chinese company SMIC, using its 7-nanometer N+2 technology, although production yields remain low, according to an earlier source. In addition, some of Huawei’s 910C GPUs will reportedly incorporate semiconductors manufactured by TSMC for the Chinese company Sophgo, according to one of the sources and a fourth person with knowledge of the matter. The US Department of Commerce is currently investigating the Taiwanese foundry’s activities for Sophgo after a chip from its factories was found in a 910B processor.
According to Lennart Heim, a researcher at the Technology and Security and Policy Center at RAND in Arlington, Virginia, TSMC has produced nearly three million chips in recent years according to Sophgo’s specifications. Huawei has reiterated that it does not use Sophgo chips manufactured by TSMC. TSMC, for its part, has assured that it complies with current regulations and has not supplied Huawei since mid-September 2020.
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Is Huawei’s AI chip ready to dethrone Nvidia in China? – MarketScreener, source
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