In response to escalating competition with the US, Huawei unveils AI chip cluster claimed to be the most powerful.
In the global race for AI dominance, Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei and American tech company Nvidia are set to square off, with both announcing significant advancements in computing systems and AI chips.
Huawei has unveiled its new computing systems, the Atlas 950 SuperPoD and Atlas 960 SuperPoD, claiming they are the most powerful in the world in terms of computing power, memory, bandwidth, and the number of neural processing units (NPUs). These systems are part of a new computing architecture designed to sustainably meet long-term demand for computing power.
Meanwhile, Nvidia is developing the newest AI computer chip, dubbed the "world's most powerful," which is expected to hit the market in early 2024. The upcoming NVL144 system will be compared with Huawei's Atlas950 SuperPoD in terms of NPUs, computing power, and memory capacity.
The competition between Huawei and Nvidia is not without controversy. In 2019, Nvidia was accused by the Chinese government of violating the country's anti-monopoly laws when it bought Israeli technology company Mellanox Technologies. Since then, Nvidia's RTX Pro 6000 chips have been banned by China's internet regulator, and the US has banned Nvidia from selling its most powerful chips, the Blackwell chip, to China. However, Nvidia did receive clearance to export its watered-down H20 chip to China.
As China pushes for semiconductor independence, the Chinese government is pressuring its tech companies to break their reliance on foreign chip makers. This push is evident in Huawei's plans to launch a new series of AI computing chips called Ascend starting in 2026. China's deputy chairman, Eric Xu, stated that computing power is key to AI, especially in China.
The race for AI superiority is not without its concerns. There are fears of an AI bubble bursting in relation to Nvidia's AI chip sales. However, Nvidia's AI chip sales have been on the rise.
In a move to potentially bypass these challenges, Nvidia is reportedly discussing a new computer chip designed for China with the Trump administration. The details of this discussion remain unclear.
The announcement by Huawei and the ongoing developments by Nvidia are part of an effort by both companies to compete with US chip giant Nvidia in the AI race. The stakes are high, and the race is far from over.
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