An individual walks previous a show of an Atlas 900 AI cluster on the Huawei stand in the course of the World Synthetic Intelligence Convention on the Shanghai World Expo and Conference Heart in Shanghai on July 28, 2025.
Hector Retamal | Afp | Getty Photos
BEIJING — Chinese language telecommunications big Huawei introduced Thursday new computing methods for powering synthetic intelligence with its in-house Ascend chips, because it steps up strain on U.S. rival Nvidia.
The corporate stated it plans to launch its new “Atlas 950 SuperCluster” as quickly as subsequent 12 months.
The U.S. has sought to chop China off from probably the most superior semiconductors for coaching AI fashions. To manage, Chinese language corporations have turned extra to grouping giant numbers of much less environment friendly, usually homegrown, chips collectively to realize related computing capabilities.
Underneath Huawei’s AI computing infrastructure, a supercluster is related to a number of superpods, which, in flip, are constructed from a number of supernodes. Supernodes, which type the bottom, are constructed on Ascend chips, utilizing system design to beat technical limitations imposed by U.S. sanctions.
Huawei stated its new Atlas 950 supernode would help 8,192 Ascend chips, and that the Atlas 950 SuperCluster would use greater than 500,000 chips.
A extra superior Atlas 960 model, slated for launch in 2027, would help 15,488 Ascend chips per node. The total supercluster would have greater than 1 million Ascend chips, in response to Huawei.
It was not instantly clear how the methods in contrast with these powered by Nvidia chips. Huawei claimed in a press launch that the brand new supernodes can be the world’s strongest by computing energy for a number of years.
“Huawei’s announcement on its computing breakthrough is properly timed with current rising emphasis by the Chinese language authorities on self-reliance on China’s personal chip applied sciences,” stated George Chen, companion and co-chair, digital apply, The Asia Group.
Whereas he cautioned that Huawei would possibly exaggerate its technical capabilities, Chen identified that the Chinese language firm’s ambition to be a world AI chief “can’t be underestimated.”
Analysis agency SemiAnalysis present in April that Huawei’s self-developed CloudMatrix system was in a position to carry out higher than Nvidia’s — regardless of every Ascend chip delivering solely about one-third the efficiency of an Nvidia processor. Huawei constructed its benefit by having 5 instances as many chips.
“Computing energy has and can proceed to be the important thing for AI,” Eric Xu, vice chairman and rotating chairman of Huawei, stated Thursday in an announcement, translated by CNBC. He was talking on the opening of the corporate’s annual Huawei Join occasion in Shanghai. The occasion runs by means of Saturday.
Two years in the past on the identical occasion, Huawei introduced its Atlas 900 SuperCluster. The corporate at the moment sells a “Atlas 900 AI Cluster” with “1000’s” of Ascend chips.
Rising strain on Nvidia
Huawei’s announcement comes as China promotes homegrown alternate options to Nvidia. Earlier this week, the 2 international locations wrapped up commerce talks in Spain that included a path towards resolving the long-contested U.S. operations of social media app TikTok, owned by Beijing-based startup ByteDance.
In one other aggressive sign, China on Monday introduced it was extending a probe into Nvidia over alleged monopolistic practices.
Strain has solely risen since on the U.S. chipmaker. Its shares fell greater than 2% Wednesday after the Monetary Occasions, citing sources, stated China has ordered native tech giants to cease assessments and orders of the Nvidia RTX Professional 6000D chip.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang informed reporters he was “upset” to listen to the information of the reported ban. He is beforehand described Huawei as a “formidable” competitor.
