Huawei’s solution marks the latest effort by China to develop homegrown alternatives in the face of US chip sanctions.
Huawei Technologies Co. unveiled new AI chip technology with greater computing power in a bid to challenge Nvidia Corp.’s dominance.
The Shenzhen-based firm’s new SuperPod technology can support linking as many as 15,488 graphic cards containing Huawei’s Ascend-branded artificial intelligence chips, the company said in a statement on Thursday. It added that it now operates a super cluster with about 1 million graphic cards.
Earlier this year, Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei told state newspaper People’s Daily that Huawei is still lagging behind the US in terms of output from a single chip but “we can still get the results we want by compensating with cluster-based computing.”
The aggressive approach helps China’s AI chip leader pack more performance into its semiconductors, which are used to train and operate artificial intelligence services by domestic firms cut off from Nvidia’s highest-end products. While short of a big breakthrough in chip technology, Huawei’s solution marks the latest development by Chinese firms trying to develop their own homegrown alternatives in the face of US chip sanctions.
Chinese tech stocks have surged in past weeks, driven by a perception that the nation’s industry leaders are making steady progress in developing homegrown AI and chips. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Baidu Inc. are among the companies that’ve secured important clients for their own in-house designs, while Cambricon Technologies Corp. – seen as a proxy for the country’s AI chip sector – has surged in market value this year.
China has recently told its biggest tech companies not to use Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D, a semiconductor for workstations that can be repurposed for AI applications. The move marks Beijing’s latest attempt to wean the country off Nvidia hardware, the gold standard for the AI industry, and boost domestic alternatives.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
Chinese authorities have also discouraged companies from using the H20 chip that’s designed for AI workloads. While the guidance stops short of an outright ban, it has nonetheless had a chilling effect. Nvidia, despite having gotten Washington’s official green light for some H20 exports, has not executed those shipments, the company said last week.
That creates a bigger vacuum in the Chinese market for domestic chipmakers like Huawei and Cambricon to fill in. Huawei’s SuperPod solution appears to be an upgraded effort to compete with Nvidia’s NVLink offering that enables high-speed communications between main chips in a server.
This technology is particularly critical to Huawei’s competitiveness against Nvidia, as the Chinese firm’s most advanced Ascend chip is less powerful than the US rival’s cutting-edge AI silicon.
SEE ALSO
To compensate for the less computing power its individual AI chip offers, Huawei has been focusing on creating technology to bundle more semiconductors together in a cluster.
Huawei also announced a new lineup of AI chips it will release over the next three years at a company event on Thursday, according to Chinese media. It is planning to launch Ascend 950PR early next year with a self-designed AI memory chip, Ascend 950DT chip in late 2026, Ascend 960 in late 2027, and Ascend 970 in late 2028. BLOOMBERG
