Huawei Prepares to Challenge Nvidia with New AI Chip Amid US Sanctions

China's Huawei is reportedly set to release new AI chip to challenge Nvidia amid U.S. sanctions

Chinese technology giant Huawei is set to challenge Nvidia with a new artificial intelligence chip amid U.S. sanctions that had sought to curb the Chinese tech giant's technological progress, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Huawei told potential clients that its upcoming processor, Ascend 910C, is on par with Nvidia's H100, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Huawei is targeting shipments as early as October. U.S. regulators in 2022 had slapped restrictions on Nvidia to stop the firm from selling AI chips, including the H100, in China, citing national security concerns. Potential customers including Chinese internet firms and telecommunications providers are already testing the Ascend 910C chip, the report said, adding that TikTok parent ByteDance, Baidu and China Mobile are among those in early discussions to purchase it. However, Huawei is facing production delays in its current chips, WSJ said, adding that the firm also faces the prospect of further U.S. restrictions that could impact its ability to obtain machine components and memory chips for AI. This is the latest sign of Huawei's ability to fight off American efforts aimed at restricting its access to advanced technology. Last year, an analysis of Huawei's Mate 60 Pro smartphone revealed a chip made by China's top chipmaker SMIC that appeared to support 5G, despite U.S. sanctions that have sought to cut the Chinese tech giant off from the technology. A resurgence in Huawei's consumer business, which includes smartphones and laptops, poses a challenge to Apple in China, one of the company's biggest markets. Apple was edged out of the top five smartphone vendors' list in China in the second quarter, as competition from domestic brands such as Huawei intensified, according to a Canalys report. Huawei has been at the center of U.S. sanctions aimed at securing U.S. networks and supply chains. In 2018, the U.S. banned its agencies from obtaining Huawei equipment or services. Huawei was then placed on a U.S. trade blacklist in 2019, which banned U.S. firms from selling technology -- including 5G chips -- to the Chinese tech giant. In 2020, the U.S. tightened chip restrictions on Huawei, requiring foreign manufacturers using American chipmaking equipment to obtain a license to sell semiconductors to Huawei. U.S. in May revoked some licenses, including those of Intel and Qualcomm, to sell chips to Huawei, saying it made the move to protect national security and foreign policy interests. China is stepping up efforts to boost its domestic chip industry, and has put in 344 billion Chinese yuan ($47.5 billion) into a third chip fund aimed at bolstering its tech sector.

Huawei readies new AI chip to challenge Nvidia in China, WSJ reports

Huawei's latest processor, Ascend 910C, is being tested by Chinese internet and telecom companies in recent weeks, the report said China's Huawei Technologies is close to introducing a new chip for artificial intelligence use to challenge Nvidia in China amid U.S. sanctions, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing sources. Huawei's latest processor, Ascend 910C, is being tested by Chinese internet and telecom companies in recent weeks, the report said, adding that Huawei has told potential clients that the chip is comparable to Nvidia's H100. Huawei did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. U.S. regulators last year put in place rules that stopped Nvidia from selling its advanced chips, including the H100, to Chinese customers, citing national security concerns. Nvidia then introduced three chips tailored for China, including the most-closely watched H20 chips. However, in line with U.S. sanctions, H20's computing power had been significantly capped compared to the H100 chips. The Journal report said Huawei aims to start shipping its newest chip as soon as October. Companies such as TikTok parent ByteDance, Baidu and China Mobile are looking to obtain the 910C chips. Initial negotiations between Huawei and potential customers indicate that orders are likely to surpass 70,000 chips, with a total value of around $2 billion, according to the report. (Reporting by Devika Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

Huawei readies new AI chip to challenge Nvidia in China, WSJ reports

Aug 13 (Reuters) - China's Huawei Technologies is close to introducing a new chip for artificial intelligence use to challenge Nvidia in China amid U.S. sanctions, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing sources. Huawei's latest processor, Ascend 910C, is being tested by Chinese internet and telecom companies in recent weeks, the report said, adding that Huawei has told potential clients that the chip is comparable to Nvidia's H100. Huawei did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. U.S. regulators last year put in place rules that stopped Nvidia from selling its advanced chips, including the H100, to Chinese customers, citing national security concerns. Nvidia then introduced three chips tailored for China, including the most-closely watched H20 chips. However, in line with U.S. sanctions, H20's computing power had been significantly capped compared to the H100 chips. The Journal report said Huawei aims to start shipping its newest chip as soon as October. Companies such as TikTok parent ByteDance, Baidu and China Mobile are looking to obtain the 910C chips. Initial negotiations between Huawei and potential customers indicate that orders are likely to surpass 70,000 chips, with a total value of around $2 billion, according to the report. (Reporting by Devika Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

Huawei readies new chip to challenge Nvidia, surmounting US sanctions

China's Huawei Technologies is close to introducing a new chip for artificial intelligence use, overcoming U.S. sanctions to challenge Nvidia in the Chinese market. Chinese internet companies and telecommunications operators have been testing Huawei's latest processor, called Ascend 910C, in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. Huawei told potential clients that the new chip is comparable to Nvidia's H100, which was introduced last year and isn't directly available in China, the people said. Huawei's ability to keep advancing in chips is the latest sign of how the company has managed to break through U.S.-erected obstacles and develop Chinese alternatives to products made by the U.S. and its allies. Aided by billions of dollars in state support, it has become a national champion in areas including AI and a key part of Beijing's endeavor to "delete" American technologies. Still, Huawei has run into production delays in its current chips, according to the people. It faces the prospect of further U.S. restrictions that could deprive it of machine components and the latest memory chips used in AI hardware. Companies including TikTok parent ByteDance, search-engine giant Baidu and state-owned telecommunications carrier China Mobile are in early discussions about obtaining the 910C, the people said. Initial negotiations between Huawei and potential customers indicate that orders are likely to surpass 70,000 chips, with a total value of around $2 billion, they said. Huawei aims to start shipping as soon as October, the people said. They cautioned that final purchases may differ from initial plans and the delivery schedule may change. A Huawei representative declined to comment. Huawei has been on the U.S. entity list since 2019, signifying that Washington considers the company a national-security threat. That has blocked it from using factories in places such as Taiwan to manufacture its chips and hindered access to critical components and manufacturing equipment. China is stepping up support for semiconductor manufacturing and in May raised $48 billion in the third installment of a national investment fund for the industry. Huawei's new AI chip seeks to fill a void left by Nvidia after U.S. export controls beginning 2022 effectively prevented the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company from offering its most advanced chips to Chinese customers. Nvidia continues to create less-powerful variants for China that comply with the export rules, although some in China have found ways to obtain its more powerful chips through other means. Chinese customers buying from Nvidia have to make do with the H20, a downgraded version of its AI chips, which Nvidia designed to clear Washington's rules for selling to China and introduced this spring. In the U.S., by contrast, Nvidia clients such as OpenAI, Amazon and Google will soon have access to the company's latest Blackwell chips and the GB200 line of hardware powered by them, which Nvidia has described as several times more powerful than its existing hardware. Nvidia is working on another China-oriented chip called B20, but the design might have trouble getting U.S. approval for China export if the White House tightens its rules, said people familiar with the matter. Dylan Patel, an analyst at industry research firm SemiAnalysis, said he viewed Huawei's 910C as an advance that could perform better than Nvidia's B20. If Huawei can produce its new chip successfully and Nvidia is still blocked from offering advanced chips to Chinese customers, he said, "Nvidia would lose market share rapidly in China." SemiAnalysis says Huawei could produce 1.3 million to 1.4 million 910C chips next year if it doesn't face additional U.S. restrictions. Initially Chinese customers weren't enthusiastic about Nvidia's H20 because they weren't sure it was significantly better than Huawei's latest offering, The Wall Street Journal reported. However, some clients ramped up H20 orders after tests of bigger H20 clusters produced favorable performance results and Nvidia cut prices, people familiar with the matter said. Huawei's production bottlenecks also played a role. SemiAnalysis estimated in July that Nvidia would sell over one million H20 chips in China this year, valued at some $12 billion. The number of chips sold would be almost twice as many as Huawei is expected to sell of its 910B, SemiAnalysis said. The U.S. sanctions are behind some delays this year in shipments of the Ascend 910B, currently Huawei's most advanced AI processor, people familiar with the matter said. In recent weeks, Huawei has started stockpiling high-bandwidth memory chips, used for state-of-the-art AI processors, in response to potential U.S. curbs on China's access to such chips, the people said. The U.S. Commerce Department frequently updates sanctions and export controls, and people in the industry expect further action this year. Huawei has told its local contract manufacturer and suppliers to store more machine components, anticipating that production workarounds might shorten the life of some parts and it might have a harder time sourcing parts, the people said. At a semiconductor industry conference in June, a Huawei executive said nearly half of China's large language models were trained with Huawei's chips. He said 910B's performance has surpassed Nvidia's A100 in training models. A June analysis by the Center for Security and Emerging Technology, a Georgetown University policy research body, said the 910 series was competitive with the A100 but also faced significant problems including limited manufacturing capacity and low yield. It said the 910B chip has fewer active AI cores -- key components for computation -- compared with Huawei's previous version, so it wasn't a big improvement.

Huawei readies new AI chip to challenge Nvidia in China: Report

People visit a Huawei store with advertisements for the Mate 60 series smartphones, at a shopping mall in Beijing, China, on September 7, 2023. -- Reuters File China's Huawei Technologies is close to introducing a new chip for artificial intelligence use to challenge Nvidia in China amid US sanctions, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing sources. Huawei's latest processor, Ascend 910C, is being tested by Chinese Internet and telecom companies in recent weeks, the report said, adding that Huawei has told potential clients that the chip is comparable to Nvidia's H100. Huawei did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. US regulators last year put in place rules that stopped Nvidia from selling its advanced chips, including the H100, to Chinese customers, citing national security concerns. Initial negotiations between Huawei and potential customers indicate that orders are likely to surpass 70,000 chips, with a total value of around $2 billion, according to the report.

Nvidia's AI chip faces new rival from Huawei in Chinese market

Huawei Technologies is nearing to unveil a new chip to use for AI, as the Chinese company inches ahead to overcome U.S. sanctions to compete with Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), The Wall Street Journal reported. In recent weeks, Chinese internet companies and telecommunications operators have been testing Huawei's new chip known as Ascend 910C, the report added citing people with knowledge of the matter. Huawei has told potential clients that the new chip is comparable to Nvidia's H100, which was unveiled last year and is not directly available in China, as per the report. However, Huawei has been facing manufacturing delays in its current chips, the report noted. The company could potentially see more U.S. curbs which could prevent it from getting machine parts and the latest memory chips used in AI hardware. Chinese companies including TikTok owner ByteDance (BDNCE), Baidu (BIDU) and state-owned telecom carrier China Mobile are in early talks to get the 910C. Preliminary discussions between Huawei and potential customers suggest that orders could go past 70,000 chips, with a total value of about $2B, according to the report. Huawei intends to begin shipping as soon as October. However, the sources noted that final purchases may vary from preliminary plans and the delivery schedule could change. At a semiconductor industry conference in June, a Huawei executive noted that around half of China's large language models were trained with Huawei's chips. He said the 910B's performance had surpassed Nvidia's A100 in training models, according to the report. In June, it was reported that in recent months, U.S. Commerce Department's officials pressured American chip equipment makers and their suppliers to stop selling to Huawei and to the Chinese company which makes Huawei chips. Due to this, the company was facing issues to increase production of its Ascend AI server chip. Last year, Baidu reportedly ordered 1,600 of Huawei's Ascend 910B AI chips -- which were developed as an alternative to Nvidia's A100 chip -- for 200 servers. Nvidia is reportedly working on a new chip with a special server design for China which would not violate U.S. export restrictions. Nvidia is teaming up with Inspur, one of its main distributor partners in China, to launch and distribute the chip, initially dubbed as B20. Earlier this year, Nvidia cut the price of its most advanced chip it made for the Chinese market, H20, pricing it below the rival chip from Huawei. In October 2023, the U.S. brought in updates to its export restrictions which would curb the sale of chips that Nvidia made for the Chinese market, such as the A800 and H800 chips, as part of Washington's efforts aimed at hindering China's access to advanced semiconductor technology. The U.S. has also restricted Nvidia from selling the A100 and more powerful successors, including the H100, in China. This prompted Chinese companies to buy less-powerful Nvidia chips. Huawei was once in competition with Apple (AAPL) and Samsung (OTCPK:SSNLF) to be the world's biggest handset maker until U.S. restrictions, starting in 2019, began to curb its access to chip manufacturing tools needed to produce its most advanced models. The U.S. pressure against suppliers for Huawei's chip started after Huawei surprised many in August last year by quietly launching its new flagship smartphone, Mate 60 Pro. The chip inside the phone ignited concerns in the U.S. and raised questions about how it was possible, without the company being able to access critical technologies. Earlier this month, it was reported that Baidu (BIDU), Huawei and Chinese startups are storing high bandwidth memory, or HBM, chips from Samsung, expecting new U.S. restrictions on exports of semiconductors to China.

Huawei's new AI chip set to challenge Nvidia: WSJ By Investing.com

Huawei Technologies is nearing the launch of a new AI chip, the Ascend 910C, challenging NVIDIA (NVDA) despite U.S. sanctions, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. The publication, citing people familiar with the matter, said Chinese tech companies have been testing the chip, which Huawei is said to have told potential clients, rivals Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA)'s H100, a chip not directly available in China. Huawei's progress underscores its ability to circumvent U.S.-imposed barriers, bolstered by substantial state support. However, production delays and potential new U.S. restrictions loom, potentially limiting access to critical components for AI hardware, the WSJ said. Huawei is in talks to supply over 70,000 chips, valued at approximately $2 billion, with shipments possibly beginning in October, according to the WSJ. However, they add that the final orders and delivery schedules could change. The company's efforts to advance its chip technology are part of a broader Chinese initiative to reduce reliance on U.S. technology. Since being placed on the U.S. entity list in 2019, Huawei has faced significant obstacles, including restricted access to manufacturing facilities and essential components. In response to U.S. export controls that have blocked Nvidia's most advanced chips from China, Huawei's new chip aims to fill the void. Nvidia has introduced a less powerful H20 chip for the Chinese market, but Huawei's production issues and U.S. sanctions have caused delays in shipments of its existing 910B chip, according to the WSJ. Despite these challenges, the WSJ notes that some analysts suggest Huawei's 910C could outperform Nvidia's planned B20 chip if production goes smoothly, potentially shifting market dynamics in China.