US-China tech war: Baidu buys AI chips from Huawei, as US restricts Nvidia chip exports: sources
- Baidu ordered US$61 million worth of Huawei’s 910B Ascend AI chips, which are marketed as an alternative to Nvidia’s A100 chip, sources say
- Huawei’s Ascend chips, though inferior to Nvidia’s in performance, are the most sophisticated domestic option available in China, one person says
Baidu ordered artificial intelligence (AI) chips from Huawei Technologies this year, two people familiar with the matter said, adding to signs that US pressure is prompting Chinese acceptance of the firm’s products as an alternative to Nvidia’s.
The second person said that the order’s total value was approximately 450 million yuan (US$61.83 million) and that Huawei was to deliver all of the chips by the end of this year. Both people declined to be named because the details of the deal were confidential.
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Although the order is tiny relative to the thousands of chips top Chinese tech firms have historically ordered from Nvidia, the sources said it was significant, as it showed how some firms could shift away from the US company.
