Huawei AI chip orders rise in China as Nvidia shipments stall

In short: Chinese tech companies are placing big orders for Huawei’s latest AI chips as Nvidia’s sales in China are slowed by regulation.

What's going on

Huawei is on track to take the largest share of China’s market for AI chips this year, according to the Financial Times. AI chips are specialized computer parts that help run AI systems, like the engines that power chatbots and image tools.

People familiar with the orders said Chinese tech companies have made large purchases of Huawei’s new Ascend 950PR chip. Huawei expects AI chip revenue to reach about $12 billion this year based on orders already received, up from $7.5 billion in 2025. The 950PR entered mass production in March, and Huawei is also preparing an upgraded 950DT chip later this year.

At the same time, Nvidia is still struggling to ship its H200 chips into China, even after getting US licenses in March, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The report says rules and pressure on both sides are complicating things. Beijing has told Chinese companies to support local suppliers, while US rules require chips ordered by Chinese clients to be used only inside China, and the result is that H200 shipments have not cleared customs.

Huawei’s chips are still behind Nvidia’s most advanced products, but Huawei is improving them and focusing on “inference,” which is the step where an AI model generates answers (like reading and responding, not studying and learning). It is also using networking to link many chips together into large computing clusters, which can help make up for weaker performance from a single chip.

What to watch

A major question is whether Huawei can make enough chips to meet demand, since it relies heavily on China’s SMIC and planned new factories. Another is software. Developers say Huawei’s Cann software tools are harder to use than Nvidia’s Cuda, which could slow adoption even if Huawei hardware is easier to buy.

Source: Financial Times