Chinese tech giant Huawei has come out with a new AI chip that poses as a competition for Nvidia. Huawei assured prospective customers that its future chipset, the Ascend 910C, is comparable to Nvidia’s H100. Shipments as early as October are the goal for Huawei.
Citing national security concerns, U.S. officials had placed limitations on Nvidia in 2022 to prevent the company from selling AI processors, notably the H100, in China. TikTok parent company ByteDance, Baidu, and China Mobile are among those in early talks to acquire the Ascend 910C processor. Other potential clients include Chinese internet companies and telecom carriers that are currently testing the chip.
WSJ said that Huawei is experiencing manufacturing delays for its existing processors and that the company may have to deal with more limitations from the US that might affect its ability to get memory chips and machine components for artificial intelligence. This is the most recent evidence of Huawei’s resilience against US attempts to limit its access to cutting-edge technologies.
Despite American sanctions aimed at isolating the Chinese tech giant from the technology, an examination of Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro smartphone from the previous year showed a chip manufactured by SMIC, the country’s leading chipmaker, appeared to support 5G. In China, one of the company’s largest markets, Huawei’s consumer business, which includes laptops and smartphones, is on the rise and presents a threat to Apple.