Huawei set to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in AI chip market

Nvidia is trying hard to maintain its supremacy in the Chinese AI chip market but as long as Huawei exists, it won’t be that easy. After a pause, the Ascend 910 developer seems ready to rival the U.S. chipmaker with a robust artificial intelligence chipset.

Huawei reportedly prepared an Ascend 910C AI chip to showdown against Nvidia in the Chinese market. The company has been working on this new product for months. Now it is seemingly ready and may jump onto the chipset battleground by October.

Amid ongoing chip tensions between the U.S. and China, Huawei’s new chip seems a tough move towards Nvidia. The foreign chipset maker is already struggling in China due to its low-end chips. And Huawei’s upcoming SoC could worsen the situation.

Nvidia’s value in China

The U.S. trade controls on China have also prohibited Nvidia from selling advanced AI processors in the region. As a result, the company did sell new chips in the Chinese market but with low computing power which didn’t attract consumers much.

Perhaps Huawei built an alternative that can help the Chinese companies in two ways. Firstly, it will reduce the dependency on foreign stuff. Secondly, it is far more reliable and efficient than the recently launched Nvidia chips in the Chinese consumer market.

Ascend 910C

Ascend 910C is the upgraded form of Ascend 910B. The Chinese internet as well as some telecoms tested the chipset. From the results, it appeared that Huawei’s new AI processor can easily match the Nvidia H100’s performance under various conditions.

The Chinese OEM will likely start shipping the Ascend 910C by October this year. Ahead of its release, the chipset already surpassed 70000 units in orders from customers like ByteDance, Baidu, and China Mobile. The order is worth $2 billion.

Huawei Ascend 910 AI chip (Image Credits: Huawei)

Nvidia vs Huawei

The U.S. chipmaker introduced various chips in China. One of these is the H20 AI processor. But to comply with the U.S. trade regulations, the OEM made it enfeebled. As a result, it didn’t meet consumers or performance demands in the region.

As of now, the company is developing B20 which is said to have double the power of H20. However, things might prove in vain if Ascend 910C is comparable to H100.

Huawei is still struggling with problems like production delays and supply chain mismanagement. After the U.S. sanctions hit the company in 2019, it took a lot of time to stand again and regain its momentum in the market. But things are gradually improving.

The Chinese OEM not only improved its smartphone and tablet ranking in the home ground but also regained some value in the global market. It even bolstered its R&D sector to build more powerful chipsets. With all these changes, it seems Huawei is ready to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in the AI chip market.

Huawei set to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in AI chip market (Image Credits: Huawei)