NVIDIA’S REIGN ON CHINA
Huang’s remarks, notably, came on the eve of a planned trip to China this week, where he is slated to meet senior officials and likely emphasise Nvidia’s commitment to the world’s largest market for semiconductors.
The Santa Clara-based firm plans to launch a new AI chip that has been further modified to meet the ever-tightening controls, the Financial Times reported last week, just months after its previous made-for-China H20 chips were banned.
Nvidia needs to move quickly if it hopes to maintain its reign on the mainland. Domestic giants from Alibaba to Tencent have reportedly been testing alternatives made by Huawei, but most still prefer Nvidia’s offerings. This is because of the difficulty of adopting Huawei’s unique software system after years of creating AI tools on Nvidia’s architecture.
But Huawei is planning a fundamental redesign of its next AI chip that would make it much easier for Chinese tech companies to switch, the Information reported last week. The rework is still in its early stages, but addresses a key hurdle that has prevented many firms from using local chips: It would allow code developers write for Nvidia’s systems to run on Huawei’s hardware.
