Huawei’s Ascend 910C Aims to Challenge NVIDIA’s H100s in China’s AI Chip Market: A Breakdown of the Rumored Specs

Huawei is gearing up to launch its next powerful AI accelerator, the Ascend 910C, which has now moved into the production phase. We have gathered some insights on what to expect from this highly anticipated chip.

Huawei’s Ascend 910C to Utilize 7nm Tech from TSMC/SMIC; Anticipates Shipping "Millions" of AI Chips

The Chinese AI sector is currently experiencing a significant technological shift. With the emergence of models like DeepSeek’s R1, the demand for enhanced computing power has skyrocketed. Amidst this competitive landscape, Huawei is set to make waves with its upcoming Ascend 910C chips. An expert analysis by Lennart Heim provides a closer look at these advancements, hinting at a robust competition against NVIDIA’s H100 in the Chinese market.

In a detailed breakdown shared by Lennart Heim on Twitter, Huawei’s new AI accelerator—the Ascend 910C—has officially entered production. Claimed to be China’s top AI chip, it has a speculative potential of reaching 1 million H100 equivalent shipments this year. Here’s a glimpse of its expected performance and what it means strategically: it’s competitive, albeit selectively.

From the information gathered, the Ascend 910C stands out not for its complexity but for its strategic design choices. Huawei plans to employ two separate silicon interposers, connected via an organic substrate—essentially merging two Ascend 910B chips for enhanced performance. This design approach is somewhat more traditional but should deliver around 800 TFLOP/s performance at FP16, along with a memory bandwidth reaching up to 3.2 TB/s, putting it nearly on par with the H100.

Huawei will be utilizing 7nm technology from both TSMC and SMIC for the Ascend 910C. The company had strategically placed significant 7nm orders with TSMC prior to export limitations, securing a substantial part of its chip production. SMIC, China’s homegrown semiconductor manufacturer, also plays a crucial role, achieving notable progress in 7nm technology with an expected output of about 50,000 wafers monthly—a capacity that should support Huawei’s ambition to ship millions of AI chips.

While addressing China’s domestic AI computing breakthroughs, the Ascend 910C is indeed a substantial leap forward. However, on a global scale, Huawei still trails significantly—by a factor of about 10 to 20 times—in computing power. Yet, companies like DeepSeek demonstrate alternative ways to compensate for this deficit, emphasizing China’s ingenuity and talent in the AI arena. As the race for AI dominance intensifies, Huawei’s efforts position it as a formidable contender.