China's AI Chip Market: Huawei Leads, Nvidia Fights Back

0:00It's April 1st. You're listening to Durham News today, AI-powered local news. I'm Corey with the story. Chinese AI chip makers grabbed nearly 41% of the AI Accelerator server market in China last year. That's a huge drop for Nvidia, which saw its share slide from 66% in 2024. US export controls blocked their top chips, while Beijing pushed agencies and firms to buy local. Alibaba's T-head unit shipped about 265,000 cards, landing second place. Baidu's Kunluxin and Cambrakhan each moved around 116,000 units for third. Huawei's Ascend 910C is leading the pack, hitting about 60% of Nvidia H100 performance per chip, even if it guzzles more. Power. Nvidia felt the pain hard. China used to make up 20-25% of their data center revenue, over $41 billion in fiscal year 2025. That dipped to 13%, and it's falling more as rivals rise. Huawei's wrapping up fast, aiming for 600,000 910C

1:05units this year, double last year's output. Their cloud matrix system links 384 processors and beats Nvidia setups on some benchmarks. Overall, China's chip localization is set to jump from 17% in 2023 to 55% by 2027. Nvidia's not quitting, though. Their CEO says they've got orders for H200 chips, and are restarting production for China. But with Beijing still favoring homegrown stacks, Huawei stays ahead on the full ecosystem, not just raw specs.