Huawei is gearing up to introduce its latest AI accelerator, the Ascend 910C, and there’s plenty of buzz about what this new chip will bring to the table now that it’s in production.
Huawei’s Ascend 910C: Powered by TSMC/SMIC 7nm Technology
The Chinese AI market is undergoing a dramatic transformation, with a growing demand for enhanced computing capabilities. This shift is partly fueled by innovative models like DeepSeek’s R1. Among the array of AI chipmakers in China, Huawei is taking a lead with the soon-to-be-released Ascend 910C chips, expected to intensify the competition significantly. According to industry expert @ohlennart, the details of the 910C chip suggest that it could pose a serious challenge to NVIDIA’s H100 in China.
A recent Twitter post from Lennart Heim highlights the Ascend 910C’s imminent production and praises it as China’s top AI chip. Heim hints at the possibility of seeing a million H100-equivalent chips this year, while diving into the performance and strategic implications of the 910C. Expectations are cautiously optimistic.
Unlike NVIDIA’s complex structures, Huawei is opting for a relatively straightforward design for the Ascend 910C. They’re utilizing two separate silicon interposers, connecting them with an organic substrate—a more traditional method. Essentially, it’s like combining two Ascend 910B chips to boost overall performance. The result? The 910C is projected to deliver 800 TFLOP/s at FP16, alongside up to 3.2 TB/s of memory bandwidth, which competes closely with the H100’s capabilities.
Huawei plans to employ 7nm technology from both TSMC and SMIC for the 910C. Notably, the company secured substantial 7nm orders with TSMC before export restrictions, so a significant portion of 910C production is expected to involve TSMC. Meanwhile, SMIC is also contributing, having made strides in 7nm technology and projecting a monthly wafer output around 50,000—a volume that should support Huawei’s ambitious goal of shipping millions of Ascend AI chips.
Considering China’s domestic advancements in AI computing, the Ascend 910C marks a significant milestone. Despite this progress, on the global stage, Huawei still lags behind in computing power by a factor of 10-20 times. However, Chinese firms like DeepSeek demonstrate that there are creative solutions to limitations in computing power. With the talent pool in China, the global AI race promises to be highly competitive.
