Tech Desk
Sep 29, 2024
Huawei is sharing its artificial intelligence (AI) chip samples with top tech manufacturers in China to diversify its ecosystem in AI solutions and take on Nvidia’s Chinese customers and market share.
South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that the Chinese tech manufacturer is testing the latest AI chips with customers and organisations in the country who are looking for an Nvidia alternative for exclusive servers. Moreover, Huawei houses an Ascend 910C processor for larger server companies.
Nvidia is a famous AI chip manufacturer firm that has become a major force in the entire AI industry including in China. However, US sanctions on AI chips have prohibited the company from selling high-end processors to Chinese manufacturers.
Read more: Qualcomm approaches Intel for potential takeover — WSJ reports
Back in 2022, the US restricted Nvidia A100 and H100 exports to China which are considered as the highly popular AI-centric solutions for large language models (LLM) and generative AI. However, the company has increased these two chips to a lower-end variant A800 and H800, which was previously banned in October.
Nvidia has altered its processor for Chinese customers and later on built H20, L20, and L2 GPUs to follow US export guidelines. Following the modification, the Chinese tech manufacturer started selling the Ascend 910B AI processor last year, it modified the older Ascend AI architecture and rolled out the latest variant with a few significant enhancements to compete with its rivals.
It has even enabled the Chinese tech manufacturer to gather early customers, however, the next variant is likely to be available for a broader audience in the high-end AI processor market.
Huawei is allegedly testing Ascend 910C for a few months and assisting the Chinese tech industry to follow with the features. A few renowned Chinese clients have already received the chip including ByteDance, Baidu, and more for testing.
Other details regarding the chip are still under wraps and the above-mentioned features are yet to be confirmed by the company ahead of release. Moreover, it is likely to start shipping in the last quarter of this year.
