Huawei’s Ascend 910C: China’s Premier AI Chip Poised to Challenge NVIDIA’s H100s in the Local Market; An Overview of Its Speculated Specifications

Huawei is gearing up to release its latest AI accelerator, the Ascend 910C, as it enters the production phase. We now have a clearer picture of what this chip will bring to the table.

In what can be described as a significant technological shift, the Chinese AI industry is seeing a surge in demand for enhanced computing capabilities, driven by innovative models like DeepSeek’s R1. Huawei, a standout player among Chinese AI chip manufacturers, is about to turn up the heat with its forthcoming Ascend 910C chips. According to analysis from industry expert Lennart Heim, the 910C won’t just sit quietly; it’s poised to give NVIDIA’s H100 a run for its money within China’s bustling market.

Heim’s insights suggest that Huawei is taking a less intricate approach compared to NVIDIA. The 910C will employ two separate silicon interposers linked by an organic substrate—a more conventional method. Essentially, the chip is a duo of Ascend 910B units working in tandem to boost performance. It’s predicted that the 910C will hit 800 TFLOP/s at FP16 and offer a memory bandwidth of up to 3.2 TB/s, which puts it in the same league as the H100.

Huawei plans to leverage 7nm technology for this chip, courtesy of both TSMC and SMIC. The company strategically placed substantial 7nm orders with TSMC before certain export restrictions came into effect, so much of the Ascend 910C’s production is tied to these orders. However, SMIC is poised to contribute significantly too, having made strides with 7nm production and achieving a monthly wafer output of about 50,000. This capacity is expected to support Huawei’s aim to ship millions of AI chips.

While the Ascend 910C symbolizes a major leap forward for China’s domestic AI efforts, it’s important to note that globally, Huawei still lags behind, often cited as trailing by a factor of 10 to 20 in computing power. Nevertheless, companies like DeepSeek demonstrate that there are innovative ways to bridge those gaps, making China’s role in the AI arena increasingly competitive. The stakes in the global AI race are undoubtedly getting higher, and all eyes are on Huawei to see how it keeps pace.