Ai-Driven Shield: Picogrid Teams Up With Northrop Grumman To Unveil Revolutionary Air Defense System
Collaboration to Modernize U.S. Air Defense: Picogrid Partners with Northrop Grumman
The U.S. …
24. September 2025
Huawei Touts Revolutionary Ai Chip System As Nvidia Loses Ground
Huawei has unveiled its ambitious plan to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in AI chips, betting on massive clusters and faster connections to close the gap. The company claims its new “SuperPod” systems can link tens of thousands of Ascend processors, boasting data transfers 62 times quicker than Nvidia’s next-generation products.
The announcement was made at Huawei’s annual Connect conference, where executives detailed upcoming chip models and infrastructure designs in a bid to outpace Nvidia’s grip on AI hardware. Rotating chairman Eric Xu outlined the company’s three-year campaign to challenge Nvidia’s lead, relying on a new UnifiedBus protocol to knit together as many as 15,488 Ascend processors inside a single SuperPod.
Huawei claims that these clusters can move information at unprecedented speeds, a headline boast meant to counter the American rival’s edge in raw chip power. The company’s roadmap for its Ascend line begins with the Ascend 910C chip and Atlas 900A3 SuperPod, expected to arrive in 2025, capable of linking up to 384 processors.
In 2026, Huawei plans to introduce the Ascend 950 and scale clusters to 8,192 chips. By 2027, the company expects the Ascend 960 to further push those numbers, tying together as many as 15,488 units in a single system. Each step is designed to show steady progress toward narrowing Nvidia’s commanding lead in AI hardware.
However, experts have doubts about Huawei’s ability to match Nvidia’s raw performance edge. Bernstein analysts Qingyuan Lin noted that the roadmap shows “a strong signal of confidence” in China’s local supply chain, but also underscored how far Huawei still lags behind its US rival. Jefferies analysts led by Edison Lee were more blunt, saying Huawei’s new chips are “uncertain” after last year’s attempt to roll out the Ascend 910D on 5nm collapsed due to poor yields.
A lack of advanced chipmaking equipment remains China’s biggest obstacle to breaking free from Nvidia, according to experts. Bernstein noted that a single next-generation Ascend 950 would only deliver about 6% of the computing power of Nvidia’s upcoming VR200 superchip. This disparity highlights why Huawei is betting on clustering massive numbers of chips rather than competing head-to-head on raw power.
Nvidia, meanwhile, is pushing ahead with record-breaking hardware and its own deals. The company has unveiled the Rubin CPX platform, a new class of GPU set to launch in 2026 and built to handle massive-context AI tasks such as large-scale coding and video generation.
At the same time, Nvidia signed a letter of intent with OpenAI for a partnership worth up to $100 billion, committing at least 10 gigawatts of compute capacity in future data centers. The deal secures millions of GPUs for one of the world’s most prominent AI players, showing how far ahead Nvidia remains even as Huawei pushes to close the gap.
Huawei’s campaign is also playing out against a shifting policy backdrop. Beijing has barred major firms, including TikTok owner ByteDance, from buying Nvidia’s RTX Pro 6000D chips built for the local market, part of a broader effort to sideline US suppliers and boost domestic champions.
Huawei has already benefited from this move, with its work with Zhejiang University on the DeepSeek-R1-Safe model putting Ascend processors at the center of training, a swap Chinese officials point to as proof local chips can step in where Nvidia once dominated. With Washington tightening restrictions and Beijing closing doors at home, Huawei’s roadmap has become a rallying point of China’s bid to break free from US technology.
The rivalry with Huawei isn’t Nvidia’s only move; it’s also putting $5 billion into Intel to shape the next generation of chips. This effort aims to create more competition in the chip market and potentially disrupt Nvidia’s dominance.
As the AI hardware landscape continues to evolve, Huawei’s SuperPod systems will be closely watched by industry observers and analysts. While the company faces significant challenges in catching up with Nvidia, its roadmap shows a strong signal of confidence in China’s local supply chain and its ability to innovate in the field of AI chips.
The battle for AI chip dominance is expected to continue in the coming years, with both Huawei and Nvidia pushing the boundaries of what is possible. As the stakes grow higher, it will be fascinating to see how these two giants navigate the complex landscape of AI hardware and emerge victorious.