Baidu buys AI chips from Huawei ahead of US ban

According to SCMP , Baidu ordered 1,600 Ascend 910B chips for 200 servers, which are chips that Huawei developed to replace Nvidia's A100 chip. By October, Huawei had delivered more than 60% of the order, or about 1,000 chips, to Baidu. Although the Ascend chip is considered far behind Nvidia in terms of performance, it is still the most advanced domestic chip available in China.

While the order is small compared to the thousands of chips that China's top tech companies have ordered from Nvidia, Baidu's purchase of the 910B chip could be a precursor to a future where it can no longer buy chips from Nvidia.

Previously, Baidu developed its own Kunlun AI chip series to support large-scale AI computing, but the company still relies on Nvidia's A100 chip to train large language models (LLMs).

Baidu's order is worth about $61.83 million

Huawei said it has been collaborating with Baidu since 2020. In August, the two companies announced they would enhance compatibility between Baidu's Ernie AI model and Huawei's Ascend chip.

In 2022, the US issued regulations that prevented Nvidia from exporting A100 and H100 chips to China. Nvidia then launched lower-performance chips like the A800 and H800 for sale to Chinese companies. However, under a new plan announced by the US government in October, these chips will no longer be exported to China.

Some analysts predict that the US restrictions will create opportunities for Huawei to expand in its home chip market. Since 2019, the US Department of Commerce has blacklisted Huawei, preventing the company from accessing advanced technologies.

To overcome the ban, the Chinese government invested heavily in the semiconductor industry to help domestic technology companies catch up with foreign rivals, while encouraging state-owned companies to use domestic technology. This has pushed Huawei to make new strides in chip production and no longer have to rely on foreign chip supplies.

On August 29, Huawei announced the Mate 60 Pro, which is equipped with a 7nm chip and 5G connectivity. In September, Huawei's internal chip design unit - HiSilicon - began shipping a new processor for surveillance cameras to customers, according to Reuters.

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