China's largest telecommunications equipment company, Huawei, is expected to soon launch a new AI chip that rivals the American AI leader Nvidia. This is interpreted as a sign that China's advanced technology development is accelerating despite U.S. sanctions.
According to the U.S. daily The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and others, Chinese internet and telecommunications companies have been conducting testing related to Huawei's latest processor, the "Ascend 910C" (Chinese name: Sheng Teng 910C), which is set to be released in the coming weeks.
Foreign media reported that Huawei's "Ascend 910C" is expected to be shipped as early as October. Huawei has explained to potential customers that "the performance of this product is comparable to Nvidia's H100 chip."
Nvidia's H100 chip is currently considered the most advanced AI chip commercialized to date.
Currently, companies such as ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, Baidu, and China Mobile are reportedly interested in purchasing Huawei's latest chip. WSJ reported that orders could exceed 70,000 units, with a scale reaching $2 billion (approximately 2.7 trillion KRW).
Despite significant setbacks in semiconductor procurement and technology development due to repeated U.S. sanctions, Chinese companies like Huawei continue to foster related industries.
Previously, in May 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce effectively placed Huawei on a trade restriction list, which is essentially a blacklist. Additionally, in August 2022, citing the risk that the Chinese military might use AI-related graphics processing unit (GPU) semiconductors, the U.S. banned Nvidia and AMD from exporting related semiconductors to China.
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