[Chip Talk] Huawei Ascend 910C Rivals Nvidia H200... The Reason Behind U.S. Approval for Exports to China

China Pushes for Chip Self-Sufficiency Amid Export Controls
"Even Without Nvidia Chips": Domestic AI Chip Development Accelerates
From Foundry and Memory to Advanced Technologies Beyond the Mainstream

There is an interpretation that the United States' decision to allow exports of Nvidia's artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor H200 to China reflects the assessment that China's semiconductor technology has advanced so much that export controls can no longer contain it. Despite the United States' stringent restrictions, China is evaluated to have rapidly narrowed the gap in key processes, such as mass-producing AI chips based on the 7nm (1nm = 1 billionth of a meter) process and developing high-layer 3D NAND flash.

On December 8 (local time), U.S. President Donald Trump announced that exports of Nvidia's H200 to China would be permitted. In 2022, during the Joe Biden administration, the United States restricted exports of equipment for processes below 14nm and cutting-edge AI accelerators, and later extended the ban to workaround products such as the H800 and A800. As a result, supplies of the A100 and H100 to China were effectively halted.

Huawei's Ascend 910C artificial intelligence (AI) chip. Huawei.

Initially, Chinese AI companies faced setbacks in model training and data center expansion due to their inability to use the H100. However, it is analyzed that large-scale investments focused on technological self-sufficiency subsequently accelerated the development of domestic chips. As early as 2015, China designated semiconductors as one of its ten strategic industries under the "Made in China 2025" initiative, setting a goal of achieving a 70% self-sufficiency rate. Although this target has not been met, continued government investment has significantly strengthened the overall growth of the industry. The size of the national semiconductor fund increased from 27 trillion won in 2014 to 40 trillion won in 2019, and to 66 trillion won this year.

Huawei's AI chip, the Ascend 910C, is cited as a representative example of advancements in Chinese technology. It uses the 7nm process and is reported to approach the performance of Nvidia's H200 in certain functions. Mass production began this year, and it has been adopted not only by major Chinese AI companies such as Baidu, ByteDance, and China Model, but also in DeepSeek's R1 model. Another feature is its custom architecture, which is not GPU-based, prioritizing efficiency and low power consumption.

Huawei's ability to stably mass-produce its own chips and supply them to major companies is seen as a sign that China has established an independent technological foundation in the high-performance AI chip sector, even after U.S. sanctions. The movement toward chip independence among China's big tech companies is also accelerating. Alibaba and Baidu are training AI models using their own chip designs, and Alibaba has announced plans to invest 74 trillion won over the next three years to reduce its reliance on Nvidia.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Ming Pao reported that Chinese authorities are expected to restrict purchases of the H200 chip even if its export is permitted, with the aim of achieving self-sufficiency in advanced domestic AI chip technology. The newspaper predicted that buyers will be required to submit purchase applications and will only be allowed to buy the H200 for legitimate reasons, while the authorities are expected to encourage the development of advanced AI chips such as Blackwell, which are on par with or exceed the H200. As of now, the Chinese authorities have not announced any policy regarding purchases following the U.S. decision to permit exports of Nvidia's H200.