Huawei Ascend 910C: China’s Leading AI Chip Poised to Challenge NVIDIA H100 Dominance in Domestic Market

Huawei is gearing up for a significant milestone in the AI hardware sector with the anticipated launch of its Ascend 910C accelerator. With production officially underway, industry experts and enthusiasts alike are eager to discover the capabilities and implications of this cutting-edge chip.

Ascend 910C: A New Contender in AI Acceleration

The Chinese AI landscape is currently experiencing a notable technological transformation. The emergence of AI models like DeepSeek’s R1 has sparked an unprecedented demand for enhanced computing power within the local industry. Among the numerous indigenous AI chip developers, Huawei has distinguished itself through innovation, positioning itself with the forthcoming release of the Ascend 910C — a product that is anticipated to heighten the competitive atmosphere in AI acceleration. According to an @ohlennart analysis, the Ascend 910C is set to rival NVIDIA’s H100 effectively in the Chinese market.

Huawei’s next AI accelerator—the Ascend 910C—is entering production. It’s China’s best AI chip. Thanks to backdoor sourcing, we could easily see 1M H100-equiv this year. Here’s what we know about its performance and strategic implications. Spoiler: selectively competitive.1/ pic.twitter.com/hVmQ5iFca9

— Lennart Heim (@ohlennart) March 11, 2025

Technical Highlights and Production Insights

Analysis indicates that the design complexity of the Ascend 910C will be less intricate compared to its NVIDIA counterparts. Huawei reportedly plans to utilize a configuration composed of two silicon interposers linked via an organic substrate — a traditional yet effective methodology. Essentially, the Ascend 910C will be a dual Ascend 910B chip setup, poised to deliver a substantial hike in performance.

Performance-wise, the Ascend 910C is projected to achieve impressive specifications, including a processing capability of 800 TFLOP/s at FP16 and a memory bandwidth reaching up to 3.2 TB/s, placing it in close competition with the H100.

Manufacturing Strategy: TSMC and SMIC Collaboration

Huawei’s Ascend 910C is expected to leverage advanced 7nm manufacturing technology from both TSMC and China’s SMIC. Prior to the imposition of export restrictions, Huawei had secured substantial 7nm orders from TSMC, indicating that a significant volume of the Ascend 910C chips will come from this partnership. Concurrently, SMIC has made headway in 7nm technology, with a forecasted monthly production capacity of approximately 50, 000 wafers, which should suffice if Huawei aims to distribute millions of these AI chips.

Future Perspectives in AI Computing

The Ascend 910C embodies a crucial advancement in China’s AI computing capabilities and signifies movement towards greater independence in the technological arena. However, it’s important to recognize that Huawei still trails international competitors by a factor of 10 to 20x in overall computing power. Nevertheless, as demonstrated by companies like DeepSeek, there are innovative strategies emerging that could address these disparities. With the nation’s robust talent pool and determined drive, the race towards AI supremacy is likely to intensify, rendering China’s AI landscape increasingly competitive.

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