Huawei Technologies unveiled its CloudMatrix 384 AI computing system, positioning it as a strong rival to Nvidia’s top-tier GB200 NVL72. The company showcased the chips at the recent World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China. Announced in April, CloudMatrix 384 has garnered global interest for its competitive edge. Huawei has become widely regarded as China’s most promising domestic supplier of chips essential for AI development, even though the company faces U.S. export restrictions.

What Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Huawei

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had spoken about Huawei’s rapid progress earlier this year, citing CloudMatrix as a key example. Huang had also warned the US about imposing restrictions on China. If the US continues to impose AI semiconductor restrictions on China, then Huawei will take advantage of its position, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC in June. “Our technology is a generation ahead of theirs,” Huang remarked at the sidelines of the Viva Technology conference in Paris. He further warned that: “If the United States doesn’t want to partake, participate in China, Huawei has got China covered, and Huawei has got everybody else covered.”In the face of U.S. export curbs that restrict Chinese companies from buying advanced semiconductors used in the development of AI, Beijing has focused on nurturing Chinese companies such as Huawei in a bid to build its own AI chip ecosystem.Huang added that it was crucial that AI developers around the world build on the American technology stack — or layers of technology — not that of China’s.

Experts see Huawei chip surpassing Huawei

Industry expert Dylan Patel of SemiAnalysis noted in April that Huawei’s AI system could surpass Nvidia’s offerings. The system integrates 384 of Huawei’s 910C chips, reportedly outperforming Nvidia’s 72 B200 chip-based GB200 NVL72 in certain metrics, thanks to Huawei’s advanced system design and “supernode” architecture for high-speed chip interconnectivity.