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This move comes as companies seek alternatives to high-end Nvidia chips, marking a significant step towards enhancing China's self-sufficiency in semiconductors despite ongoing US restrictions.
According to two sources familiar with the situation, Huawei has provided samples of its Ascend 910C processor to major Chinese server companies for hardware evaluation and configuration.
This upgraded version of the 910B chip is being presented to large Chinese internet firms, many of which are also significant customers of Nvidia, as noted by one source who distributes Huawei's AI chips.
Huawei did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.
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In response to the void left by Nvidia following the US ban on the shipment of advanced graphics processing units (GPUs) to China, Huawei has been striving to fill the gap.
The Ascend 910B chips, which Huawei claims are comparable to Nvidia's widely used A100 chips, have emerged as a leading alternative across various industries in China.
As of last year, Huawei's Ascend solutions were utilized to train approximately half of the top 70 large language models in the country.
While Huawei has kept its chip development progress under wraps, it is evident that the company is establishing a robust support system for the domestic AI sector.
Eric Xu Zhijun, Huawei's rotating chairman, stated recently that the company has developed two computing businesses over the past five years to provide enterprises with additional options for their AI infrastructure requirements.
Xu stated that it is improbable that the United States will lift its restrictions on AI chips for China in the near future.
Nevertheless, he pointed out that this situation has opened up a chance for the company to provide computing resources through its cloud services division.
A source affiliated with a server company mentioned that Huawei frequently packages its offerings. "When we purchase Huawei's AI chips, we are also required to acquire additional products from them, such as network and storage solutions, which causes some hesitation," the individual remarked.
According to a telecom source collaborating with Huawei on GPUs in Shenzhen, the majority of Huawei's AI chips available in the market are still the 910B model.
Nvidia, which had China as its third-largest market in the fiscal year ending January 28, is among the leading technology companies facing the impact of increasingly strict US sanctions on China's access to advanced semiconductors.
In August 2022, Nvidia was initially prohibited from selling its A100 and H100 GPUs—two highly sought-after chips for training and executing AI models—to clients in China.
Subsequently, the company modified these chips to produce the A800 and H800 in an attempt to circumvent the restrictions, which were then also banned from export to China by Washington last October.
This ongoing back-and-forth, criticized by US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, has persisted. Nvidia has since introduced the H20, L20, and L2 GPUs to sustain its market presence in China.
While initial demand for the H20 was lukewarm, sales have gradually increased in recent months. For major Chinese cloud service providers, utilizing a chip that complies with US regulations is crucial, as it allows them to access Nvidia's technical support and maintenance services.
Nvidia is projected to supply over 1 million H20 GPUs in China this year, generating approximately US$12 billion in revenue.