Despite the embargoes imposed by the US, Huawei and SMIC have achieved great success in artificial intelligence chip production. The two companies aim to reach an annual production capacity of 1 million AI chips by the end of the year.
Chinese companies continue to struggle in the field of artificial intelligence
Although the US is tightening its embargo policies to prevent China from advancing in chip technology, Chinese technology giants continue to somehow overcome these restrictions. Huawei and SMIC continue to increase their production capacities with the support of the government.
Just before the US embargoes came into force, Huawei managed to get Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC to cast 2 million Ascend 910Bs, according to a report by the Centre for Strategic Studies.
Huawei is able to combine two Ascend 910B units to create an advanced artificial intelligence chip called Ascend 910C. Considering the loss of about 20 per cent in the production process, it is estimated that the company has at least 750 thousand Ascend 910C chips.
On the other hand, SMIC, which has restricted access to advanced ASML EUV casting machines, is focusing on developing DUV technology with lower efficiency. The company plans to produce 50 thousand wafers per month with the 7nm DUV production process by the end of 2025. This corresponds to approximately 400 thousand Ascend 910C artificial intelligence chips.
However, it is stated that Chinese companies cannot offer software efficiency as strong as Nvidia in the field of artificial intelligence. While Nvidia hardware provides great benefits to productive AI models such as DeepSeek, Chinese AI initiatives are still largely dependent on Nvidia chips.
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