Huawei’s Ascend AI chips have reached a 50% share of China’s artificial intelligence accelerator market, according to statistics from various organizations and data presented at Huawei Connect. Nvidia’s share has fallen to 8%.
In 2022, Nvidia held 95% of China’s AI chip market, while Huawei’s Ascend accounted for just 3%. The figures represent a major shift in the market over just four years.
U.S. export restrictions have been a key factor behind the change. Since 2023, restrictions on exports of high-performance AI accelerators have been tightened, limiting Chinese cloud providers and research institutions’ access to Nvidia’s products.
Demand for AI computing has remained strong, however, allowing Huawei’s Ascend chips to fill the gap and become a more widely used option in the Chinese market.
