Huawei Claims Ascend 910B AI Chip Manages To Surpass NVIDIA's A100 AI GPU
Huawei's cutting-edge Ascend 910B AI chip for China now exceeds NVIDIA's A100 AI GPU in terms of performance, claims the company's executive. When you look at the domestic Chinese AI accelerator offerings, the leading manufacturer is Huawei, which has significantly improved its Ascend platform, attracting the attention of big tech firms in the region. With the harsh US regulations into play, cutting-edge AI components, such as those from NVIDIA and AMD, have seen export restrictions, resulting in domestic companies looking for in-house alternatives, and the Ascend 910B AI chip has been at the forefront when it comes to market adoption, especially with its performance, as disclosed by Huawei's executive.
Performance Comparison
Huawei's Ascend 910B AI chip has managed to surpass NVIDIA's A100 AI GPU by up to 20% in training performance, according to Wang Tao, chief operating officer of Huawei Ascend and Kunpeng department. The official said that Huawei has managed to close the gap with NVIDIA's A100, and through this, the company's commitment to elevating its Ascend ecosystem is noticeable. Apart from that, leading Chinese firms such as Tencent Holdings and Baidu have bought the Ascend 910B chips for low-to-mid conferencing tasks, showing that the chip has seen massive market adoption.
Market Impact
It was recently reported that NVIDIA's H20 AI GPUs, which are designed specifically for the Chinese markets, haven't managed to attract consumer interest at all, so Team Green decided to slash the pricing of the accelerator to maintain "relevance" in the markets. This shows that Chinese tech giants are now considering simply shifting to domestic AI offerings, and this is a massive blow for NVIDIA and others because China has accounted for a significant portion of their revenue in previous quarters, giving Huawei and others a golden opportunity.
Industry Outlook
However, one should remember that the big three, NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel, have all moved to a yearly cadence as a part of their new AI roadmap and strategy so the performance leaps will get harder for Huawei to catch up especially since they aren't even close to NVIDIA's H100, let alone H200, B100, and B200. Huawei has emerged as the primary competitor against harsh US regulations, and the firm has made massive strides in the industry, whether in the mobile or computing segment. The company doesn't look to stop just yet, and with the developments they have made, it won't take long before Huawei emerges as a dominant force in all industry sectors.
News Source: SCMP
