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China bets on Huawei’s Ascend chips to replace banned Nvidia technology

By isabelle // 2025-04-28

• Huawei is testing its advanced AI chip, the Ascend 910D, aiming to replace Nvidia’s semiconductors in China amid U.S. sanctions.
• The new chip may outperform Nvidia’s H100 in raw power but suffers from higher energy consumption and lower efficiency.
• Huawei’s AI chip progress follows the success of its domestically produced Mate 60 chip, defying earlier U.S. sanctions expectations.
• China’s push for self-reliance faces challenges due to reliance on less advanced manufacturing from SMIC compared to TSMC and Samsung.
• The U.S.-China tech war escalates, with Huawei’s advances showing sanctions may accelerate China’s tech independence rather than stifle it.

In a bid to counter U.S. sanctions and reduce reliance on Western technology, Huawei is preparing to test its most advanced AI chip yet—the Ascend 910D. According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, the Chinese tech giant aims to replace Nvidia’s high-end semiconductors in the domestic market, signaling China’s growing determination to achieve self-sufficiency in critical technologies. The new chip, while potentially outperforming Nvidia’s H100 in raw power, is plagued by higher energy consumption and lower efficiency, raising questions about its long-term viability.

Huawei’s push for AI independence

Huawei’s Ascend 910D represents the latest effort to circumvent U.S. export restrictions, which have sought to stifle China’s access to advanced semiconductors since 2019. The chip is set to undergo technical feasibility testing in the coming weeks, with mass production expected later this year. Industry insiders claim the 910D will surpass Nvidia’s H100 in performance, though they acknowledge its limitations in power efficiency. The development follows Huawei’s surprise success with its domestically produced Mate 60 smartphone chip in 2023, which defied predictions that U.S. sanctions would cripple China’s semiconductor industry. The company now supplies AI processors to state-backed firms like ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company) and major telecom carriers, with plans to ship over 800,000 units of its previous models, 910B and 910C, this year alone.

Challenges and trade-offs

Despite its ambitions, Huawei faces significant hurdles. The Ascend 910D relies on power-hungry packaging technologies to compensate for weaker individual components, according to sources familiar with the matter. Unlike Nvidia’s chips, which benefit from cutting-edge foundries like TSMC, Huawei depends on China’s SMIC, a manufacturer constrained by its own U.S. equipment restrictions. Research firm SemiAnalysis noted that while Huawei’s chips may lag in efficiency, sheer volume could compensate: “Having five times as many Ascends more than offsets each GPU being only one-third the performance of an Nvidia Blackwell.” This suggests Chinese firms may prioritize scale over optimization to keep pace in the AI arms race.

Nvidia’s struggles and Huawei’s opportunity

The timing of Huawei’s chip rollout is no coincidence. Just days after the U.S. announced stricter export bans on Nvidia’s H20—a downgraded chip designed for the Chinese market—Huawei unveiled its Ascend 920, set for mass production in late 2025. Industry analysts speculate the 920 could fill the void left by Nvidia, offering comparable capabilities despite its higher power demands. Nvidia, meanwhile, faces a potential $5.5 billion loss in Chinese revenue due to the new restrictions. The company had seen 50% quarterly growth in H20 sales before the ban, highlighting how reliant China’s AI sector had become on U.S. technology. Huawei, in contrast, is leveraging nationalist sentiment and government backing to position itself as the homegrown alternative.

The geopolitical battleground

The semiconductor clash is just one front in the broader U.S.-China tech war. Washington has repeatedly cited national security concerns, fearing advanced AI chips could bolster China’s military capabilities. Huawei’s resilience, however, undermines these efforts, proving that outright bans may only accelerate China’s drive for self-reliance. SMIC’s 6nm manufacturing process, which was used for the upcoming Ascend 920, demonstrates China’s progress in chipmaking. Yet, it remains years behind TSMC and Samsung, which means Huawei’s products will likely remain costlier and less efficient than their Western counterparts for the foreseeable future. Huawei’s advances are impressive but come with caveats. The Ascend 910D and 920 may help China reduce its dependence on Nvidia, but their higher power consumption could limit adoption in energy-conscious sectors. Still, with state-backed mandates and a captive domestic market, Huawei has a clear path to dominance—at least within China. As the AI race intensifies, the U.S. and China are locked in a high-stakes game of technological one-upmanship. Huawei’s latest chips prove that sanctions alone won’t halt China’s ascent. Whether they can truly compete on the global stage, however, remains to be seen.   Sources for this article include: ZeroHedge.com Reuters.com TechRadar.com

AI chips NVIDIA semiconductors Huawei