Huawei already has a new chip to rival Nvidia's AI GPUs — Ascend 910C aims to replace Nvidia's Blackwell in China

Ascend 910
Ascend 910 (Image credit: Huawei)

Huawei is prepping its Ascend 910C, another AI chip aimed at the Chinese market and designed to compete against Nvidia's offerings, such as the existing HGX H20 and the upcoming rumored Blackwell-based B20. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company has already provided samples of the new chip to its partners among Chinese telecommunications operators.

Major Chinese companies, including Baidu, ByteDance, and China Mobile, have tested Huawei's Ascend 910C. According to Huawei, the device is on par with Nvidia's H100, but it is unclear which benchmark terms the Ascend 910C is comparable to Nvidia's previous-generation flagship product. Dylan Patel, an analyst with research firm SemiAnalysis, believes that Huawei's 910C represents a significant advancement and could outperform Nvidia's B20, but he did not provide details.

While constrained by export controls, Nvidia continues to sell downgraded versions of its AI GPUs, such as the HGX H20, to Chinese customers. However, these GPUs are less potent than what is available in other markets, which leaves many Chinese clients unsatisfied as this limits their international competitive positions. Huawei's new Ascend 910C could fill this gap if it can meet production targets.

Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.