Singapore/Beijing: Huawei Tech plans to start mass-transporting its advanced 910C AI chips to Chinese customers as early as next month, two people familiar with the matter said.
They added that some goods have been carried out.
It’s by chance for Chinese AI companies, which have been scrambling to be domestic alternatives to the H20, the main AI chip that Nvidia was only recently allowed to sell freely on the Chinese market.
This month, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump told NVIDIA that H20 sales will require an export license.
According to one of the two, Huawei’s 910c is a graphics processing unit (GPU), representing the evolution of architecture rather than technological breakthroughs.
They say it can achieve comparable performance to NVIDIA’s H100 chips by combining two 910B processors into a package with advanced integration technology.
This means it has twice the computing and memory capabilities of the 910B, and also has incremental improvements, including enhanced support for various AI workload data, they added.
All sources were not authorized to speak with the media and refused to confirm. Huawei declined to comment on the speculation about the shipment plan for the 910c and its features.
To limit China’s technological development, especially military progress, Washington has removed China from NVIDIA’s most advanced AI products, including its flagship B200 chip.
For example, the H100 chip was banned from being sold in China in 2022 by US authorities.
This allows Huawei and Chinese GPU startups such as Moore Threads and Iluvatar Corex to trace back to markets dominated by Nvidia.
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s latest export curb on NVIDIA’s H20 “meaning Huawei’s Ascend 910c GPU will now be the hardware of choice for (China) AI model developers and deployment reasoning capabilities,” consultancy Albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright albright starter.
Sources said that at the end of last year, Huawei distributed samples of 910C to several technology companies and began accepting orders.
Reuters cannot determine which companies will mainly produce the 910C.
Sources have previously said China’s SMIC is using its N+2 7NM process technology to manufacture some major components of GPUs, despite its low chip yields.
According to one of the sources and the fourth person, at least some of Huawei’s 910C GPUs use semiconductors made by TSMC for China’s Soph.
The Ministry of Commerce has been investigating the work done by Taiwan’s contract manufacturing giant after one of its TSMC-made chips was found in a 910B processor.
According to researchers at the Rand Center for Technology and Security and Policy in Arlington, Virginia, TSMC has made nearly 3 million chips in recent years, matching the designs ordered by Sophgo, and he is tracking China’s development in AI.
Huawei reiterates that it has not yet used the Sophgo chip made by TSMC. Sophgo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
TSMC said it complies with regulatory requirements and has not provided Huawei since mid-September 2020.
