TL;DR:
- Huawei aims to compete with Nvidia in the AI chip market.
- The Ascend 910B is the latest addition to Huawei’s AI chip series.
- Initial Ascend 910 faced challenges against Nvidia’s dominance.
- Ascend 910B’s capabilities are comparable to Nvidia’s A100.
- Huawei secures a substantial AI chip order from Baidu.
- China’s AI chip market is estimated at $7 billion.
Main AI News:
Amidst U.S. restrictions on Nvidia’s advanced artificial chips, Huawei has seized an opportunity to gain a foothold in the AI chip market. Reports suggest that Huawei secured a substantial AI chip order from Chinese tech giant Baidu this year, positioning itself as a formidable competitor to Nvidia. While Huawei is renowned for its telecom and smartphone businesses, it has quietly been nurturing an AI chip line for the past four years, with its Ascend AI chip series taking center stage as a contender to rival Nvidia’s A100 chip, specifically the Ascend 910B.
Huawei’s Entrance into the AI Chip Business
Huawei embarked on its AI chip journey by unveiling the Ascend 910 in 2018 and officially launching it in 2019. This move was part of Huawei’s strategy to build a comprehensive AI portfolio and establish itself as a computing power provider. However, this ambitious endeavor coincided with U.S. export controls targeting the company.
At the time of its introduction, Huawei claimed the Ascend 910 to be the world’s most potent AI processor, manufactured on a 7-nanometer process. The chip boasted impressive performance, delivering 256 TeraFLOPS for half-precision floating point (FP16) operations and 512 TeraOPS for integer precision calculations (INT8). Additionally, Huawei emphasized the chip’s efficiency, with a maximum power consumption of 310W, surpassing the original target of 350W.
Despite these capabilities, the Ascend 910 struggled to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in the global AI chip market, both within and outside China. Nvidia’s introduction of the A100 and H100 chips in 2020 and 2022, respectively, solidified its hold on the majority of the AI chip market share worldwide, particularly boosted by the rise of generative AI. Nvidia’s established software ecosystem played a pivotal role in maintaining its stronghold, whereas Huawei’s ecosystem, known as CANN, was perceived as more limited in terms of its AI model training capabilities.
Unveiling the Ascend 910B
While Huawei has not officially announced the Ascend 910B, details about this newer version of the Ascend 910 have surfaced through public comments by Chinese companies and academics, as well as technical guides on Huawei’s website. In August, the chairman of Chinese AI giant iFlyTek praised Huawei for producing a GPU that he likened to Nvidia’s A100. Chinese media outlet Yicai reported that this hardware was powered by the Ascend 910B, previously undisclosed. Documents related to the Ascend 910B, including driver and firmware upgrade guides, began appearing on Huawei’s website in August. During iFlyTek’s earnings call, Senior Vice President Jiang Tao reaffirmed that the Ascend 910B’s capabilities were “comparable to Nvidia’s A100.”
In a significant development, Baidu ordered 1,600 Huawei 910B chips for 200 servers in August. At the same time, analysts acknowledge that the 910B chips rival Nvidia’s in raw computing power, but they concede that Nvidia still maintains an edge in performance. Nevertheless, the 910B chips are regarded as the most advanced domestic option available in China.
The Significance for Huawei and China
The stakes are high for Huawei and China as a whole in the AI chip industry. Analysts estimate China’s AI chip market to be valued at $7 billion, making it a lucrative arena for competition. Gaining market share from Nvidia could mark a substantial victory for Huawei against the United States.
Huawei has expressed its aspirations to become a primary provider of computing power for AI. Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, in September, emphasized Huawei’s goal to establish a computing base for China and offer the world a “second option,” alluding to the dominant position of the United States in the field.
In light of restrictions on Nvidia chips, Chinese AI firms may increasingly rely on domestic products like Huawei’s less powerful chips. However, analysts predict that Huawei, backed by substantial support and investment from the Chinese government in AI and semiconductor sectors, may eventually close the performance gap, further solidifying its position in the AI chip market.
Conclusion:
Huawei’s strategic move into the AI chip industry, exemplified by the Ascend 910B, signals increased competition in the market. While Nvidia has maintained its dominance, Huawei’s progress and support from the Chinese government could potentially disrupt the status quo. The $7 billion Chinese AI chip market is poised for transformation, with Huawei positioning itself as a significant player, challenging Nvidia’s stronghold.
