Ant Group Claims AI Breakthrough Using Chinese Chips, Challenging Nvidia's Dominance
7 Sources
[1]
A Chinese tech giant says it slashed AI costs using only Chinese chips | TechCrunch
Earlier this year, DeepSeek briefly crashed Nvidia's stock because of speculation that its models require far fewer chips. Now, Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, which is backed by Alibaba founder Jack Ma, is claiming a major AI breakthrough. Ant was able to use Chinese chips made by Alibaba and
[2]
Chinese fintech company uses domestic semiconductors for AI breakthrough
The company still uses Nvidia but now relies mainly on Chinese chips Ant Group, the financial technology giant backed by Alibaba, has announced a major achievement in artificial intelligence (AI) by successfully training a model using domestically produced semiconductors. According to Bloomberg,
[3]
Jack Ma-Backed Ant Touts AI Breakthrough Built on Chinese Chips
Jack Ma-backed Ant Group Co. used Chinese-made semiconductors to develop techniques for training AI models that would cut costs by 20%, according to people familiar with the matter. Ant used domestic chips, including from affiliate Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Huawei Technologies Co., to train
[4]
Alibaba-affiliate Ant combines Chinese and U.S. chips to slash AI development costs
BEIJING -- Alibaba-affiliate Ant Group is using both Chinese and U.S.-made semiconductors for building more efficient artificial intelligence models, according to a source familiar with the matter. The combination of chips not only reduces the time and cost of training AI models, but also limits
[5]
Jack Ma-backed Ant touts AI breakthrough built on Chinese chips
Ant Group has used Chinese-made semiconductors, including chips from Alibaba and Huawei, to develop cost-effective AI training techniques, reducing costs by 20%. Its AI models, based on the Mixture of Experts approach, are competing with US firms like Nvidia. Ant aims to scale AI with lower-cost,
[6]
Jack-Ma's Ant Group Manages To Develop AI Models Using Huawei Chips With 20% Lower Cost, Performance On-Par With Meta's Llama Models
NVIDIA's dominance over the Chinese AI market might be in jeopardy, as the Jack Ma-backed Ant Group is said to have developed AI models using Chinese chips at a bargain. It seems like China's AI industry is witnessing what we should call a "technological revolution" credit to the US export
[7]
Ant Group Turns to Alibaba and Huawei Chips as Viable Nvidia Alternatives for AI Training
Ant Group, the Jack Ma-backed Chinese financial giant, has used domestic semiconductors from Alibaba and Huawei to cut AI development costs by 20%. The breakthrough marks a significant step forward for the Chinese firm, which is looking to continue the momentum of China's domestic AI wins
Share
Copy Link
Ant Group, backed by Alibaba's Jack Ma, reports significant cost reduction in AI model training using Chinese-made chips, potentially rivaling Nvidia's performance and signaling a shift in the global AI chip market.
Ant Group's AI Breakthrough with Chinese Chips
Ant Group, the Chinese fintech giant backed by Alibaba founder Jack Ma, has announced a significant advancement in artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The company claims to have developed techniques for training AI models using Chinese-made semiconductors, resulting in a 20% reduction in costs compared to using traditional hardware
1
3
.Domestic Chip Utilization
Ant Group leveraged chips from Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Huawei to train its AI models
2
. The company reports that these domestic chips performed comparably to Nvidia's H800 chips, which are currently restricted from export to China due to U.S. sanctions3
. This development marks a potential shift in the AI chip market, traditionally dominated by Nvidia.Mixture of Experts Approach
The breakthrough is based on the "Mixture of Experts" (MoE) machine learning approach, which divides tasks into smaller sets of data, similar to having a team of specialists focusing on different segments of a job
5
. This technique has gained popularity among companies like Google and Chinese startup DeepSeek for its efficiency in AI model training.Cost Reduction and Efficiency
According to Ant Group's research paper, the cost of training 1 trillion tokens using high-performance hardware was reduced from about 6.35 million yuan ($880,000) to 5.1 million yuan using their optimized approach with lower-specification hardware
5
. This cost-effective method could potentially democratize AI development by making it more accessible to smaller firms.Diversification of Hardware Sources
While Ant Group continues to use Nvidia chips for some AI development tasks, the company is increasingly relying on alternatives, including AMD and Chinese-made chips, for its latest models
2
4
. This strategic shift reflects a broader trend in China's tech industry, driven partly by U.S. export controls on advanced GPUs.Related Stories
Implications for Global AI Development
If Ant Group's claims are verified, this breakthrough could mark a significant step forward for Chinese AI development. It demonstrates China's growing capabilities in AI and suggests that domestic and non-U.S. alternatives to Nvidia's GPUs are becoming viable for large-scale AI training
2
.Applications and Future Prospects
Ant Group plans to leverage its AI models, Ling-Plus and Ling-Lite, for industrial AI solutions in sectors such as healthcare and finance
5
. The company has already made these models open source, with Ling-Lite containing 16.8 billion parameters and Ling-Plus boasting 290 billion parameters5
.Challenges and Competition
Despite the reported success, Ant Group faced challenges in some areas of the training, including stability issues where small changes in hardware or model structure led to problems
5
. The company's models are also competing with established players like Meta's Llama models and DeepSeek's equivalents in various language benchmarks5
.As the AI chip race intensifies, this development could potentially impact Nvidia's current dominance in the market. However, questions remain about the long-term scalability and performance of these alternative chips compared to Nvidia's established ecosystem
2
.References
Summarized by
Navi
[2]
Related Stories
Alibaba Develops AI Inference Chip Amid China's Push for Semiconductor Independence
28 Aug 2025•Technology
Huawei Challenges Nvidia's AI Chip Dominance in China, Focusing on Inference Tasks
22 Jan 2025•Technology
Huawei's Ascend 910C Challenges Nvidia's AI Dominance with 60% H100 Inference Performance
05 Feb 2025•Technology
Recent Highlights
1
OpenAI Launches Astra AI Model With Critical Cyber Abilities Amid Safety Debate
Technology
2
OpenAI Agents Escape Sandbox, Post 18,000 Messages on German Wiki to Share Hacking Techniques
Policy and Regulation
3
Anthropic AI Completes 10-Year Mathematical Proof Project in Just 11 Days Using Claude
Technology
Recent Highlights
Today's Top Stories
Don’t drown in AI news. We cut through the noise - filtering, ranking and summarizing the most important AI news, breakthroughs and research daily. Follow topics that matter to you and stay ahead.
