According to an exclusive report by Reuters, Huawei plans to release its latest AI chip, the Ascend 910C, as early as May and has already begun partial shipments. This chip aims to break through U.S. AI chip export restrictions to China, providing Chinese companies with a high-performance computing alternative. Its performance is benchmarked against Nvidia’s H100 and it is expected to become the preferred hardware for domestic AI developers.
Previously, Nvidia’s H20 chip, as the main AI chip in the Chinese market, was freely available for sale. However, this month, the U.S. government notified Nvidia that sales of the H20 chip would require an export license, forcing domestic companies to urgently seek domestic alternatives.
Chip Performance Breakthrough: Dual-Chip Packaging, Doubled Computing Power`
It is understood that Huawei’s Ascend 910C is not a completely new technological breakthrough but rather an architectural innovation. According to sources, Huawei has packaged two 910B processors together through advanced integration technology, making its performance comparable to Nvidia’s H100 chip. Compared to the 910B, the 910C has doubled computing power and storage capacity, and it has also improved in supporting various AI workload data. Huawei declined to comment on the shipment plans and performance speculations regarding the 910C.
Previously, a TrendForce analysis report indicated that the performance of the Ascend 910C has surpassed Nvidia’s H100 by 60%, marking a significant breakthrough for China in the field of AI chips. Huawei has been distributing samples to several technology companies since the end of last year and has begun accepting orders, but the specific mass production scale is not yet clear.
Supply Chain Challenges Under U.S. Sanctions
Despite the technological breakthrough of the Ascend 910C, its production still faces severe challenges. Earlier reports suggested that SMIC is using its N+2 7nm process technology to produce some of the GPU’s main components, but the chip yield is low.
The Financial Times previously reported that Huawei’s chip yield has increased from 20% last year to 40% and plans to further optimize it to 60%, approaching TSMC’s level. However, limited production capacity has led to delivery delays.
China’s AI Industry’s “Backup Plan” Turns Mainstream
For a long time, to restrict China’s technological development, especially in the military field, the U.S. government has cut off China’s access to Nvidia’s most advanced AI products, such as the flagship B200 chip. In 2022, the sale of Nvidia’s H100 chip to China was banned before its release. The latest export restrictions on the H20 chip provide an opportunity for Huawei and other Chinese GPU startups such as Moore Threads and Tianshu Zhixin, which will compete in a market long dominated by Nvidia.
Analysts say that the U.S. Department of Commerce’s latest export restrictions on Nvidia’s H20 chip mean that Huawei’s Ascend 910C GPU will become the preferred hardware for Chinese AI model developers and inference deployment.