Latest news with #Ascend910
Economic Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Nvidia sounds the alarm: Chinese AI talent defecting to Huawei as U.S. chip curbs push them out the door
Nvidia is sounding the alarm about the unintended impact of US export restrictions on sending chips to China, as the company's senior VP of research and chief scientist, Bill Dally, said that the chipmaker is now witnessing an increasing number of former Nvidia AI researchers joining Huawei, a move prompted primarily by the tightening export controls, as per a PC Gamer to Dally's calculation, the number of AI researchers working in China has grown from a third of the world's total in 2019 to nearly half at present, reported PC Gamer, which cited a translation from the Taiwan Economic Daily report. The AI chipmaker's rationale is that without US restrictions, Huawei wouldn't be forced to focus so much on domestic AI solutions, but now it must do so to keep up, according to the PC Gamer report. However, this is not the first time Nvidia is pointing out that the US export restrictions for China are harming the AI industry in America. Even during Computex last month, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said, "AI researchers are still doing AI research in China and if they don't have enough Nvidia, they will use their own [chips]," and he also spoke regarding Huawei specifically, saying the company has become "quite formidable", reported PC Gamer. While, it is not just the US national interest that has urged Nvidia to highlight all the possible negatives of export controls, as these restrictions have cost and will cost the chipmaker lots of money, according to the report. Nvidia had revealed that after billions of dollars lost due to the restrictions of its H20 chips to China in Q1, it's expecting another $8 billion to be lost for the same reason in Q2, reported PC Gamer. According to the report, Huawei's latest Ascend 910 and 920 chips, with the help of China's SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation), would be a better option for Chinese AI companies than trying to get their hands on Nvidia chips, as per the report. Why is Nvidia concerned about its AI researchers joining Huawei? Because it signals that export restrictions might be pushing top talent and innovation into China, instead of slowing its progress. How much money has Nvidia lost from these restrictions? Nvidia says it lost billions in Q1 and expects another $8 billion in losses in Q2 due to blocked chip sales to China.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Nvidia sounds the alarm: Chinese AI talent defecting to Huawei as U.S. chip curbs push them out the door
Nvidia is sounding the alarm about the unintended impact of US export restrictions on sending chips to China, as the company's senior VP of research and chief scientist, Bill Dally, said that the chipmaker is now witnessing an increasing number of former Nvidia AI researchers joining Huawei, a move prompted primarily by the tightening export controls, as per a PC Gamer report. AI Talent Spike in China According to Dally's calculation, the number of AI researchers working in China has grown from a third of the world's total in 2019 to nearly half at present, reported PC Gamer, which cited a translation from the Taiwan Economic Daily report. US Export Restrictions Fuel Domestic Innovation in China The AI chipmaker's rationale is that without US restrictions, Huawei wouldn't be forced to focus so much on domestic AI solutions, but now it must do so to keep up, according to the PC Gamer report. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Undo However, this is not the first time Nvidia is pointing out that the US export restrictions for China are harming the AI industry in America. Even during Computex last month, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said, "AI researchers are still doing AI research in China and if they don't have enough Nvidia, they will use their own [chips]," and he also spoke regarding Huawei specifically, saying the company has become "quite formidable", reported PC Gamer. Big Financial Stakes for Nvidia While, it is not just the US national interest that has urged Nvidia to highlight all the possible negatives of export controls, as these restrictions have cost and will cost the chipmaker lots of money, according to the report. Live Events Nvidia had revealed that after billions of dollars lost due to the restrictions of its H20 chips to China in Q1, it's expecting another $8 billion to be lost for the same reason in Q2, reported PC Gamer. Huawei and SMIC Step Up According to the report, Huawei's latest Ascend 910 and 920 chips, with the help of China's SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation), would be a better option for Chinese AI companies than trying to get their hands on Nvidia chips, as per the report. FAQs Why is Nvidia concerned about its AI researchers joining Huawei? Because it signals that export restrictions might be pushing top talent and innovation into China, instead of slowing its progress. How much money has Nvidia lost from these restrictions? Nvidia says it lost billions in Q1 and expects another $8 billion in losses in Q2 due to blocked chip sales to China.
LeMonde
23-05-2025
- Business
- LeMonde
AI race: US-China chip war heats up
It did not take long for tensions to flare once again between the world's two largest powers. No sooner had a truce on tariffs been declared on Monday, May 12, in Geneva between the United States and China than the battle over the strategic sector of artificial intelligence (AI) reignited. As early as May 13, the Trump administration began outlining its strategy to slow China's progress in semiconductor technology, sparking outrage in Beijing. The reason: According to a directive from the Bureau of Industry and Security, the division of the US Department of Commerce responsible for controlling sensitive exports, using Huawei Ascend chips "anywhere in the world" may violate US export control regulations. Washington explained that the latest chips from Chinese manufacturer Huawei, the Ascend 910 models, had been designed or produced with certain software or equipment originating from the US. The phrase "anywhere in the world" has since been removed from the Commerce Department's statement, but the damage was done. "The recent attempt at a complete blockade of Chinese chips is a blatant act of unilateralism and intimidation," condemned Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on May 20. The already fragile atmosphere of dialogue emerging from the 90-day trade truce agreed on the shores of Lake Geneva had begun to unravel. According to Beijing, Washington had "seriously undermined the Geneva consensus." Criminal prosecutions worldwide China warned that anyone complying with US measures would be suspected of violating its own law against foreign sanctions. The result: Any company worldwide purchasing the latest Huawei chips would come under US scrutiny, while those obeying US directives could face criminal prosecution in China.
South China Morning Post
22-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Huawei to roll out AI chips in second half as potential alternative to Nvidia H20: report
Huawei Technologies will roll out its new Ascend 920 artificial intelligence (AI) chip later this year, as the company steps into the role as China's alternative supplier to US giant Nvidia, which is subject to even tighter US export restrictions, according to media reports and industry insiders. Advertisement The Ascend 920, which was at the advanced 6-nanometre node level, is expected to begin mass production in the second half of this year, with analysts saying it could become an alternative to Nvidia's H20 AI chips that were just banned from sale to China, according to a report by Taiwanese media Digitimes. Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. Separately, Huawei's Ascend 910C graphics processing unit (GPU), part of its Ascend 910 series, will go into mass production as early as next month, according to a Reuters report on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Huawei's Ascend 910B chip. Photo: Handout Nvidia began selling its tailor-made H20 chips to the Chinese market in early 2024, after its advanced A100, H100, A800 and H800 AI chips were all placed under US export controls due to national security concerns. Advertisement
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DeepSeek research suggests Huawei's Ascend 910C delivers 60% of Nvidia H100 inference performance
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Huawei's HiSilicon Ascend 910C is a version of the company's Ascend 910 processor for AI training introduced in 2019. By now, the performance of the Ascend 910 is barely sufficient for the cost-efficient training of large AI models. Still, when it comes to inference, it delivers 60% of Nvidia's H100 performance, according to researchers from DeepSeek. While the Ascend 910C is not a performance champion, it can succeed in reducing China's reliance on Nvidia GPUs. Testing by DeepSeek revealed that the 910C processor exceeded expectations in inference performance. Additionally, with manual optimizations of CUNN kernels, its efficiency could be further improved. DeepSeek's native support for Ascend processors and its PyTorch repository allows for seamless CUDA-to-CUNN conversion with minimal effort, making it easier to integrate Huawei's hardware into AI workflows. This suggests that Huawei's AI processor's capabilities are advancing rapidly, despite sanctions by the U.S. government and the lack of access to leading-edge process technologies of TSMC. While Huawei and SMIC have managed to catch up with TSMC's capabilities in the 2019–2020 era and produce a chip that can be considered competitive with Nvidia's A100 and H100 processors, the Ascend 910C is not the best option for AI training. AI training remains a domain where Nvidia maintains its undisputable lead. DeepSeek's Yuchen Jin said that long-term training reliability is a critical weakness of Chinese processors. This challenge stems from the deep integration of Nvidia's hardware and software ecosystem, which has been developed over two decades. While inference performance can be optimized, sustained training workloads require further improvements in Huawei's hardware and software stack. Just like the original Ascend 910, the new Ascend 910C uses chiplet packaging, and its main compute SoC has around 53 billion transistors. While the original compute chiplet of the Ascend 910 was made by TSMC using its N7+ fabrication technology (7nm-class with EUV), the compute chiplet of the Ascend 910C is made by SMIC on its 2nd Generation 7nm-class process technology known as N+2. Looking ahead, some experts predict that as AI models converge to Transformer architectures, the importance of Nvidia's software ecosystem may decline. DeepSeek's expertise in the optimization of hardware and software could also significantly reduce dependency on Nvidia, offering AI companies a more cost-effective alternative, particularly for inference. However, to compete at a global scale, China must overcome the challenge of training stability and further refine its AI computing infrastructure.
