Nvidia's AI chip sales in China stall, as local chipmakers like Huawei take the lead - Traverse City Record-Eagle

In the escalating race between the U.S. and China to dominate artificial intelligence, the battle over hardware and computing power is intensifying, with Chinese companies like Huawei overtaking globa... Read original →

U.S. export controls on AI chips have backfired, catalyzing China’s domestic substitution rather than stifling its AI ambitions. Huawei’s Ascend 950, leveraging SMIC’s N+2 process and localized packaging, now rivals NVIDIA’s H200 in training throughput while operating within a de-Americanized supply chain. Even with relaxed restrictions allowing sales of downgraded chips like the H20, NVIDIA faces insurmountable cost and ecosystem disadvantages. Upstream EDA and advanced packaging vendors must reconfigure their customer portfolios, while Chinese AI labs redesign model architectures for native hardware compatibility. Over the next 12–24 months, tighter scrutiny on transshipment via Taiwan, China and Hong Kong, China is inevitable. Huawei’s global rollout of AI infrastructure across 170 countries could redefine edge AI markets—especially if ASML’s EUV ban entrenches a bifurcated semiconductor roadmap below 3nm.