Chinese tech giant Huawei unveiled over 10 new chipsets for AI computing infrastructure on Thursday in a bid to challenge Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) and Intel Corp.‘s (NASDAQ:INTC) dominance in the market.
The new chipsets include next-generation AI accelerators, CPUs, and high-speed connectivity chips. Huawei’s rotating chairman, David Wang, stated that the company’s primary objective is to assist industries in establishing crucial AI infrastructure, providing an alternative for China and the world, Nikkei Asia reported.
The next-generation Ascend 960 DT AI accelerator is on track to launch officially in the first quarter of 2027, with development progressing ahead of schedule and performance expected to be twice that of its predecessor. The Ascend 960PR is slated for release in the third quarter of 2027.
During his keynote at the annual Huawei Connect event in Shanghai, Wang highlighted the Ascend chip’s importance to the broader system and confirmed that Huawei plans to maintain a one-generation-per-year pace for Ascend product development.
Eric Xu, another rotating chairman at Huawei, stated that domestic demand significantly exceeds supply, causing the company to currently limit its aggressive expansion into international markets. However, Huawei is testing and providing limited supply to several countries with strong demand, Xu said.
Nvidia Faces Pressure in China AI Chip Market
This move by Huawei comes as the competitive landscape in the AI chip industry heats up. Chinese AI chipmaker Enflame Technology, backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd. (OTC:TCEHY), saw a soaring debut in Shanghai, raising about $912 million in its initial public offering. Enflame is considered one of China’s "four little dragons" of AI chipmaking.
Meanwhile, Nvidia has continued supplying China with limited batches of its H200 AI chips, with shipments approved for select customers in mainland China. ByteDance and Tencent Holdings have each received roughly 10,000 H200 processors over the past few weeks, while other Chinese technology companies could soon receive approval for shipments of a similar size
Veteran technology analyst Dan Ives said Nvidia remains significantly ahead of Huawei in China, claiming even a lower-tier Nvidia chip is roughly year and a half to two years ahead of Huawei’s technology. He said semiconductor industry discussions suggest major Chinese tech companies would still choose Nvidia processors if given the option. Ives argued that this technological lead will be difficult for competitors to close as AI demand expands from large-language-model training into areas such as physical AI and autonomous systems.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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