"Huawei Developing High-Performance AI Chip to Replace Nvidia"

WSJ: "Sample Expected as Early as the End of May"

According to foreign media reports, China's Huawei is developing its own AI chip with the goal of replacing Nvidia's high-performance artificial intelligence (AI) chips.

AFP Yonhap News

On the 27th (local time), the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing sources, reported that Huawei has contacted Chinese technology companies to test the technical feasibility of its latest AI chip, the "Ascend 910D," during the early stages of development. The company is expected to receive the first sample products as early as the end of next month.

According to the sources, Huawei expects this AI chip to deliver even greater performance than Nvidia's flagship product, the "H100."

Huawei's previously developed AI chip products were known as the "910B" and "910C." On the 21st, Reuters, citing sources, reported that Huawei had developed the 910C product by packaging two 910B processors together, and plans to begin supplying them in large quantities to customers as early as next month. Reuters also reported that at the end of last year, Huawei distributed 910C samples to technology companies and began taking orders, with some shipments already delivered.

According to sources cited by the WSJ, Huawei plans to ship more than 800,000 units of the 910B and 910C chips this year to customers including Chinese state-owned telecommunications companies and private AI developers such as ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.

The U.S. government has blocked China's access to advanced semiconductors for several years. In the case of the Nvidia H100, exports to China were banned even before its release in 2022. To circumvent U.S. regulations, Nvidia has sold the lower-spec H20 chip in China, but the U.S. Department of Commerce recently decided to restrict exports of the H20 to China as well. After the Trump administration restricted exports of Nvidia's H20, some Chinese companies have reportedly been in discussions to increase their orders of Huawei's 910C, according to the WSJ.

The WSJ noted, "The steady technological progress of Huawei, one of China's leading technology companies, demonstrates the resilience of China's semiconductor industry despite U.S. efforts to block access to semiconductor manufacturing equipment."