NVIDIA’s CEO, Jensen Huang, has expressed concern over the surging competition posed by Chinese tech powerhouse Huawei, which he describes as a ‘formidable’ competitor with remarkable achievements in artificial intelligence (AI).
Huawei’s Rapidly Advancing AI Capabilities
In the arena of AI, Huawei stands out as one of the most viable domestic contenders available to China, having made significant advancements in local AI computing technologies. Since China began its pursuit of AI leadership, Huawei has focused on developing hardware solutions that present a competitive alternative to NVIDIA’s offerings. Recent announcements from Huawei have prompted Huang to regard the Chinese firm with greater seriousness. At the APAC 2025 Q&A session, he addressed the media with the following insights:
Question: Chinese companies like Huawei are aggressively pursuing NVIDIA. What is NVIDIA’s assessment of this?
Jensen Huang: NVIDIA is the world’s leading AI infrastructure technology company. It’s miles ahead of its competitors. However, it would be foolish to underestimate competitors like Huawei. Huawei has mastered 5G communications technology and can make excellent smartphones. They already have the technology, so Huawei’s Cloud Matrix announcement isn’t surprising.
That’s why we take this competition very seriously. With China rapidly catching up, NVIDIA is moving even faster.
Huawei has recently unveiled an ambitious AI chip roadmap extending through 2027, showcasing products equipped with self-manufactured high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and prominent performance enhancements. Among its plans, Huawei is also set to elevate its rack-scale offerings with the next-generation Atlas SuperPoDs, capable of achieving performance levels comparable to NVIDIA’s Rubin architecture. This is made possible through the integration of 8, 192 Ascend 950 AI chips within a single cluster, pushing the boundaries of computational capabilities with an innovative ‘stacked-up’ rack architecture.
Huang recognizes that Huawei is progressing at a remarkable pace in the AI landscape. As NVIDIA has effectively been sidelined from the Chinese market for months, competing against domestic alternatives has become increasingly challenging. The company has encountered obstacles in launching its Blackwell AI chips in China, while Huawei accelerates toward competing directly with NVIDIA’s Rubin architecture. This situation illustrates that, for Huang, the challenge lies not only in re-entering the Chinese market but also in contending with Huawei’s rapid advancements.
At present, there is uncertainty regarding the future of NVIDIA-China relations. However, one fact remains evident: Huawei’s advancements in computing technologies are relentless. There may come a time when NVIDIA’s AI solutions will no longer be the primary choice for domestic cloud service providers (CSPs) and major AI companies within China.
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