Introduction
Huawei has initiated mass shipments of its Ascend 910C artificial intelligence chip, aimed at filling the gap left by Nvidia in the Chinese market. This strategic move comes in response to U.S. export restrictions affecting Nvidia’s chips.
Ascend 910C Specifications
The Ascend 910C is designed for AI training and inference and combines two older 910B processors, achieving impressive performances:
- Performance: ~800 TFLOP/s at FP16
- Memory Bandwidth: 3.2 TB/s
- Manufacturing Process: 7nm, sourced from TSMC and SMIC
These specifications position the 910C close to 80% of Nvidia’s H100 performance, appealing to Chinese companies seeking viable alternatives.
CloudMatrix 384 System
In addition to the chip, Huawei is offering a comprehensive system called CloudMatrix 384, which includes 384 Ascend 910C units and delivers around 300 petaflops of computing power. This performance surpasses Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72 system.
Market Dynamics
With U.S. restrictions on Nvidia’s H20 chip, companies like Baidu and Tencent are pivoting toward Huawei’s solutions. Analysts predict that the 910C will become the preferred choice for Chinese AI developers, as industry leaders acknowledge Huawei’s rising capability.
Future Outlook
Huawei aims to manufacture 100,000 units of the 910C and 300,000 units of the 910B by 2025, advancing China’s goal of reducing reliance on foreign AI technologies. Despite some skepticism regarding Huawei’s approach and dependency on TSMC, the potential for a significant shift in the AI hardware landscape is evident.
