Huawei's new AI chip finds favour with ByteDance, Alibaba which plan to place orders, sources say

About this update from Huawen Media Group Class A

Customer testing of Huawei's new AI chip, designed to challenge Nvidia NASDAQ:NVDA in the China market, has gone well and big tech giants including ByteDance and Alibaba plan to place orders, two people familiar with the matter said.The development marks a milestone for Huawei (HWT.UL). Despite a government campaign to encourage the use of domestic semiconductors, the Shenzhen-based firm struggled to persuade big tech firms in the private sector to adopt its current flagship chip, the Ascend 910C, in large quantities, industry sources have previously said.This time around, tech firms intend to use the new 950PR more extensively, much happier now that the chip is more compatible with Nvidia's CUDA software system and has better response speeds, said the two people and a third person with knowledge of those plans.Huawei plans to ship around 750,000 950PRs this year, according to two of the people. They said samples were sent to customers in January, and that mass production should begin next month, setting the stage for fully fledged shipments to start in the second half of the year.The sources were not authorised to speak to media and declined to be identified. Huawei, ByteDance, Alibaba NYSE:BABA did not reply to Reuters requests for comments. RESTRICTIONS ON NVIDIA CHIPSA launch of the 950PR comes at a difficult time for Nvidia in China. Many of its artificial intelligence chips have been banned from sale in China by Washington on worries that the technology could boost the capabilities of the Chinese military.The Trump administration last year greenlighted the sale of Nvidia's H200 chips - more powerful than currently restricted products - albeit with a number of conditions that could limit amounts sold. The H200 has also recently received approval from Chinese authorities, but it remains unclear when they will be allowed into the country.Huawei mentioned its new chip last September when it outlined its long-term semiconductor plans for the first time and said it would be launching some of the world's most powerful computing systems.The 950PR, which uses traditional DDR memory, will be priced at around 50,000 yuan ($6,900) per card, while a premium version with faster HBM memory will sell for around 70,000 yuan, the sources said.Where previously Huawei had stuck to its proprietary CANN software system, the new chips will allow developers at Chinese tech...

View stock analysis, news, and events for Huawen Media Group Class A