Singapore/Beijing — Huawei Applied sciences plans to start mass shipments of its superior 910C synthetic intelligence chip to Chinese language prospects as early as subsequent month, two folks aware of the matter mentioned.
Some shipments have already been made, they added.
The timing is fortuitous for Chinese language AI corporations which have been left scrambling for home alternate options to the H20, the first AI chip that Nvidia had till not too long ago been allowed to promote freely within the Chinese language market.
This month, US President Donald Trump’s administration informed Nvidia that gross sales of the H20 would require an export licence.
Huawei’s 910C, a graphics processing unit (GPU), represents an architectural evolution relatively than a technological breakthrough, in keeping with one of many two folks and a 3rd supply aware of its design.
It achieves efficiency similar to Nvidia’s H100 chip by combining two 910B processors right into a single bundle by means of superior integration methods, they mentioned.
Which means it has double the computing energy and reminiscence capability of the 910B and it additionally has incremental enhancements, together with enhanced help for various AI workload knowledge, they added.
All sources weren’t authorised to talk to media and declined to be recognized. Huawei declined to touch upon what it known as hypothesis about cargo plans for the 910C and its capabilities.
Searching for to restrict China’s technological growth, significantly advances for its navy, Washington has lower China off from Nvidia’s most superior AI merchandise together with its flagship B200 chip.
The H100 chip, for instance, was banned from sale in China in 2022 by US authorities earlier than it was even launched.
This has allowed Huawei and Chinese language GPU start-ups reminiscent of Moore Threads and Iluvatar CoreX to go after what has primarily been a market dominated by Nvidia.
The US Commerce Division’s newest export curbs on Nvidia’s H20 “will imply that Huawei’s Ascend 910C GPU will now turn into the {hardware} of alternative for (Chinese language) AI mannequin builders and for deploying inference capability,” mentioned Paul Triolo, a associate at consulting agency Albright Stonebridge Group.
Late final 12 months, Huawei distributed samples of the 910C to a number of know-how companies and began accepting orders, sources have mentioned.
Reuters was not capable of verify which corporations could be primarily producing the 910C.
China’s SMIC is manufacturing some major parts of the GPUs utilizing its N+2 7nm course of know-how, although its chip yield charges are low, a supply has beforehand mentioned.
No less than a few of Huawei’s 910C GPUs use semiconductors that had been made by TSMC for China-based Sophgo, in keeping with one of many sources and a fourth individual.
The Commerce Division has been investigating work finished by the Taiwanese contract chip manufacturing big for Sophgo after one in all its TSMC-made chips was present in a 910B processor.
TSMC made almost three million chips lately that matched the design ordered by Sophgo, in keeping with Lennart Heim, a researcher at RAND’S Expertise and Safety and Coverage Centre in Arlington, Virginia, who’s monitoring Chinese language developments in AI.
Huawei reiterated that it has not used TSMC-made Sophgo chips. Sophgo didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
TSMC mentioned it complies with regulatory necessities and it has not provided Huawei since mid-September 2020.
Reuters
