Huawei is gearing up to release its latest advanced AI accelerator, the Ascend 910C, now that the chip has officially entered the production stage. We’ve managed to gather some insights about what to anticipate from this highly anticipated piece of technology.
Huawei Ascend 910C to Use TSMC and SMIC’s 7nm Process: Company Plans Massive Distribution
We’re witnessing a dramatic transformation within China’s AI sector, driven by burgeoning demand as seen with models like DeepSeek’s R1. Amidst this upheaval, Huawei clearly stands out as a key player. Their imminent Ascend 910C chip is poised to elevate the competition significantly. Recent analysis from industry expert @ohlennart reveals some intriguing details about the 910C, suggesting it might give NVIDIA’s H100 a run for its money within the Chinese market.
According to insights shared in a recent tweet by Lennart Heim (@ohlennart) on March 11, 2025, the Ascend 910C is touted as China’s leading AI chip. Thanks to certain strategic sourcing maneuvers, there’s potential for production figures similar to NVIDIA’s H100 to be reached this year, although with selective competitiveness.
From the analysis, it’s evident that Huawei is opting for a more conventional design with the Ascend 910C compared to NVIDIA’s intricate setups. Huawei plans to deploy two silicon interposers linked via an organic substrate—a method that essentially merges two Ascend 910B chips to boost combined performance. This design aims to hit 800 TFLOP/s at FP16, along with memory bandwidth reaching up to 3.2 TB/s, nearly matching that of the H100.
As for the manufacturing process, Huawei will employ 7nm technology sourced from both TSMC and SMIC. Prior to the imposition of export restrictions, Huawei had already secured substantial 7nm orders from TSMC, situating the company to heavily rely on TSMC for the Ascend 910C’s production. Meanwhile, SMIC is also expected to contribute significantly, especially since it has successfully achieved 7nm production capabilities. With a projected monthly wafer output of about 50,000, SMIC’s involvement is critical if Huawei aims to deliver millions of its new AI chips.
The Ascend 910C represents a major milestone in China’s AI development and points to promising progress. It’s important to acknowledge, though, that in the wider global landscape, Huawei still trails significantly in computing power—by about a factor of 10 to 20 times. Nevertheless, companies like DeepSeek have demonstrated there are innovative ways to offset hardware limitations, leveraging China’s vast talent pool. This sets the stage for an increasingly competitive AI race on the horizon.
