Huawei New AI Chip 910C emerges as China’s bold response to U.S. tech sanctions and American tariffs, fueling the nation’s AI revolution and challenging Nvidia’s dominance in the global AI race.
Introduction
As the global race for artificial intelligence supremacy heats up, Huawei has unveiled its Huawei Ascend 910C chip, which will be a key contender in re-emerging China’s tech landscape. With mass shipments expected in May 2025, the chip comes at a crucial moment, as US export restrictions on advanced AI hardware like Nvidia’s H100 and H20 will help create opportunities for domestic innovation. The Ascend 910C could not only challenge Western dominance in AI chipmaking, but also reflect China’s strategic pursuit of self-reliance in key technologies. This article highlights the capabilities, implications, and challenges of Huawei’s latest innovation and explores how it could transform the future of AI in China and beyond. Is it really a differentiator in a competitive field dominated by Nvidia, AMD, and Apple?
Table of Contents
What is the Huawei AI Chip 910C?
Huawei’s new AI chip 910C is not a simple technological leap forward, but rather an architectural evolution of Huawei’s previous Ascend 910B. Two 910B processors are integrated into a single package using advanced technologies, enabling the 910C to deliver double the computing power and memory capacity of its predecessor.This approach gives Huawei the ability to achieve performance comparable to Nvidia’s H100, a chip widely regarded as the benchmark in AI processing.
Key features of Huawei AI Chip 910C include:
- Increased computing power: The dual-chip design significantly boosts performance, making it capable of large-scale AI training and inference workloads.
- Improved AI workload support: Incremental upgrades enable the 910C to handle a wider range of AI data tasks more efficiently.
- Integration with CloudMatrix 384: Huawei’s rack-scale AI platform, which consists of 384 Ascend 910C chips across 16 racks, is designed to train advanced AI models at scale, leveraging high-speed optical interconnects to supercharge less advanced manufacturing processes.
- Offers up to 30% more performance than its predecessor (910B)
While the 910C is manufactured using SMIC’s 7nm N+2 process – which is less advanced than the cutting-edge nodes used by Nvidia – it compensates through brute-force scaling and system-level optimization. However, reports suggest the chip can achieve low yields, with only around 75% of units going through advanced packaging, which poses production challenges.
Who has the best AI chips?
| Feature | Huawei 910c | Nvidea H100 | Apple M3 Ultra |
| AI TFLOPs | 512 TFLOPs | 700+ TFLOPs | ~200 TFLOPs |
| Process node | 7nm | 5nm | 3nm |
| AI Framework Support | MindSpore | CUDA TensorRT | Core ML |
| Power Consumption | Energu-eficient | High | Balanced |
| Deployment Target | Cloud, Edge | Data Centres | Consumer Devices |
growth of the AI industry in China, the USA, and the EU from 2019 to 2025.
Challenges and Opportunities: Huawei’s 910C Chip in a Sanctioned, AI-Driven World
Huawei has launched the 910C chip at a time when US sanctions and technology export restrictions are putting pressure on China’s semiconductor industry. One of the most prominent challenges is gaining access to advanced lithography machines and cutting-edge fabrication nodes.
Speaking of opportunity, U.S. sanctions have created a captive market for Huawei and other Chinese chipmakers like Moore Threads and Illuwater CoreX. Analysts have predicted that the 910C will become the “hardware of choice” for Chinese AI developers, especially as Nvidia’s H20 continues to face supply shortages. Huawei’s partnerships, including a partnership with TSMC for some components (through intermediaries like Sofgo), show its ability to navigate complex supply chains despite sanctions.
Huawei’s 910C Chip: Market Response and AI Industry Impact
Huawei’s announcement of mass shipments of its new AI chip 910C has sent shockwaves through the global tech industry. Nvidia’s stock fell as much as 6% on April 21, 2025, reflecting investor concerns about its shrinking foothold in China. Other chipmakers, including AMD and Broadcom, also saw shares fall, highlighting the broader market implications of Huawei’s rise.
For Huawei, the 910C is a chance to regain some of the prestige it lost due to US sanctions. The company’s ability to produce more than half a million advanced Ascend chips annually underscores its manufacturing prowess and strategic foresight, according to a Center for Strategic and International Studies report.
FAQs :
Is Huawei's chip better than Nvidia ?
What chipset does Huawei use?
When it comes to processors, Huawei’s flagship devices are powered by the Kirin 9000 chipset — the most advanced and powerful chip the company has produced to date.
Can Huawei make chips?
China’s Huawei is set to begin mass production of its most advanced AI chip in the first quarter of 2025, despite ongoing challenges in chip manufacturing caused by U.S. restrictions, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
How much is Ascend 910C?
Huawei’s 910C is reportedly on par with Nvidia’s H100 in performance. After testing by Baidu and Bytedance, Huawei plans to manufacture 1.4 million units in 2025. Priced at around $28,000 each—based on a $2 billion order for 70,000 chips—the 910C matches Nvidia’s H100 on cost
Pingback: GPT Image 1 API: The New AI Image Generator for Creators. - Advance Prompt