China’s AI Chip Deficit: Why Huawei Can’t Catch Nvidia and US Export Controls Should Remain

[Yellow is Okay]

China's semiconductor right now it is running on China's domestic ecosystem without having any American/European/Japanese/South Korean/Taiwanese technologies.

China is only waiting for its domestic EUV to become ready to shatter the AI chip supremacy of the US, since the DUV only ensures China's independence from the US extortion tactics, but the EUV will be the truly status quo breaker.

However, the US cannot break China's rare earth restriction either, and by keep escalating the tech war, China might use more restriction on the civilian technologies on the US.

PS, China's home OS market is big enough as most Chinese companies are fearing the data leak by the us spywares, so they won't trust any US or western OS anymore.

China's home market is big enough to feed its domestic OS.

China has still not used the maximum pressure on the US like Trump has already done.

You're still going to do business with other countries, right? Not just trading emails back and forth, but actual business dealings and development. And even with this whole AI boom, companies like Samsung, SK hynix and TSMC are making serious money off it too. It's not just Nvidia and their CUDA platform cleaning up.

But if you adopt a Chinese OS right now? You're not getting anything out of it economically or technologically. China has been basically dominated the entire supply chain. So why would anyone actually want to lock themselves into that ecosystem?

 

[JsCh]

Moving to a new OS can help China reduce dependence, but it also accelerates disintegration with other countries. Nobody's going to massively adopt a Chinese OS without receiving huge subsidies from China, either in terms of economic aid or actual meaningful tech transfer. East Asia's, and especially Korea and Taiwan's, rise in semiconductors and their interconnection with the West, and especially the US ecosystem, has had a lot to do with US's tech transfer to the region.

With the way the US or Western politician are acting, it does not look like China has a choice, is there?

Once saction or banned, China would have to come up with a domestic alternative. With no other viable alternative, China would have to abandon that market.

Therefore in terms of integration, that would be worst than CHina at least has an domestics alternative.

With an alternative, China at least has a chance to compete with the entrenched global market leader.

Saying that nobody is going to adopt China system is way underestimation of China competiveness.

Who can say that Harmony OS would not one day beat western system like iOS and Android and perhaps one day even desktop OS. It could offer unique features that are very different from the current system, and once it is adopted enmassed in China and a mature ecosystem thus established, it might be attractive to foreign market.

And for the specific ecosystem of CUDA, which is bundled with the GPU chip. Once foreign country adopt China GPU/AI chip they would have to switch to the Chinese ecosystem.

It is very reasonable to assume that China could offer better pricing that means lots of saving because these are big and very costly system (like Huawei 5G system).

That could be irrestible to underdeveloped countries because of the huge saving and also because of US political control of prioritize access to US hardware.

 

[Yellow is Okay]

With the way the US or Western politician are acting, it does not look like China has a choice, is there?

Once saction or banned, China would have to come up with a domestic alternative. With no other viable alternative, China would have to abandon that market.

Therefore in terms of integration, that would be worst than CHina at least has an domestics alternative.

With an alternative, China at least has a chance to compete with the entrenched global market leader.

Saying that nobody is going to adopt China system is way underestimation of China competiveness.

Who can say that Harmony OS would not one day beat western system like iOS and Android and perhaps one day even desktop OS. It could offer unique features that are very different from the current system, and once it is adopted enmassed in China and a mature ecosystem thus established, it might be attractive to foreign market.

And for the specific ecosystem of CUDA, which is bundled with the GPU chip. Once foreign country adopt China GPU/AI chip they would have to switch to the Chinese ecosystem.

It is very reasonable to assume that China could offer better pricing that means lots of saving because these are big and very costly system (like Huawei 5G system).

That could be irrestible to underdeveloped countries because of the huge saving and also because of US political control of prioritize access to US hardware.

I'm not saying China can't build its own OS, architecture, or ecosystem. That's absolutely on the table. My argument was never about that. It's about adoption outside of China. And if you genuinely believe China can just sustain itself in isolation, then cool, but don't quote me into that conversation.

Take Harmony OS. Last time I checked, you still can't run Gmail or most foreign banking apps on it without Google's certificate. Has that actually changed? And even if Huawei rolls out a Gmail equivalent for Harmony, why would anyone outside China bother? Who's going to blow their budget overhauling infrastructure and protocols for that? Are there even any native foreign banking apps on Harmony OS yet? And the desktop side? Even Linux has stronger developer and enterprise backing than that.

I have never seen a Southeast Asian country adopt Harmony OS. East Asia surely won't touch a Chinese ecosystem, and why would any Southeast Asian country risk their economic and tech ties with East Asia and the West just to run a Chinese OS? That trade-off makes zero sense. Please explain that to me.

And the GPU argument, at the consumer level, people are pairing whatever chip they get with Windows or Linux, not Harmony OS. At the enterprise level, even Vietnam is managing to source H100s from the US. Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines? They have access to far more modern and state-of-the-art hardware. So what's the actual point being made here? Unless China actually builds its own hardware from the ground up, develops its own proprietary software, and transfers that tech to other countries to lock them into China's ecosystem, nobody is seriously walking away from the US and Western ecosystem for what China has to offer right now.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

You're still going to do business with other countries, right? Not just trading emails back and forth, but actual business dealings and development. And even with this whole AI boom, companies like Samsung, SK hynix and TSMC are making serious money off it too. It's not just Nvidia and their CUDA platform cleaning up.

But if you adopt a Chinese OS right now? You're not getting anything out of it economically or technologically. China has been basically dominated the entire supply chain. So why would anyone actually want to lock themselves into that ecosystem?

China is 1.4 billion market, which is roughly the size of the entire western world.

The main neutral market for tug of war is the global south.

Since many global south countries don't trust the western devices.

 

[东风夜放花千树]

Moving to a new OS can help China reduce dependence, but it also accelerates disintegration with other countries. Nobody's going to massively adopt a Chinese OS without receiving huge subsidies from China, either in terms of economic aid or actual meaningful tech transfer. East Asia's, and especially Korea and Taiwan's, rise in semiconductors and their interconnection with the West, and especially the US ecosystem, has had a lot to do with US's tech transfer to the region.

We are currently adopting a separate approach for official and civilian use.

The government, military, and research institutions use domestic systems and software. Personnel in the military and research institutions are not allowed to use Apple phones, Tesla, or other foreign devices.

At present, state-owned enterprises have gradually phased out Windows systems and foreign software.

Based on the current situation, a complete phase-out is unavoidable.

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

We are currently adopting a separate approach for official and civilian use.

The government, military, and research institutions use domestic systems and software. Personnel in the military and research institutions are not allowed to use Apple phones, Tesla, or other foreign devices.

At present, state-owned enterprises have gradually phased out Windows systems and foreign software.

Based on the current situation, a complete phase-out is unavoidable.

I'm slowly phasing out Windows for personal use. Other than tax software, Linux satisfies 95% of my needs.

 

[JsCh]

I'm not saying China can't build its own OS, architecture, or ecosystem. That's absolutely on the table. My argument was never about that. It's about adoption outside of China. And if you genuinely believe China can just sustain itself in isolation, then cool, but don't quote me into that conversation.

Take Harmony OS. Last time I checked, you still can't run Gmail or most foreign banking apps on it without Google's certificate. Has that actually changed? And even if Huawei rolls out a Gmail equivalent for Harmony, why would anyone outside China bother? Who's going to blow their budget overhauling infrastructure and protocols for that? Are there even any native foreign banking apps on Harmony OS yet? And the desktop side? Even Linux has stronger developer and enterprise backing than that.

I have never seen a Southeast Asian country adopt Harmony OS. East Asia surely won't touch a Chinese ecosystem, and why would any Southeast Asian country risk their economic and tech ties with East Asia and the West just to run a Chinese OS? That trade-off makes zero sense. Please explain that to me.

Err.. I am confuse now. You are the one that quote and reply me in a my conversation with others on US banning Nvidia GPU to China. I mention China having a alternative OS as an analogy, no suggesting that China is moving towards that now.

Like I have mentioned, China needs to develop own GPU or AI chip because nVIdia is banned and it has no choice. China is also developing alternative OS, but unlike GPU, OS is not banned by US. China would have to move to domestic version if it is.

If that happen, thinking that China running a different OS would be disintegration is problematic. It is perfectly possible for both system to coexist. Different country run different system on multiple level, they can still trade and communicate all the time.

And also, if Harmony OS offer features that are way better, like integration with IoT or other feature that are not available with traditional OS, or Huawei phone that has extraordinary features that are very luringly attractive, then there are chances that foreign market might gradually move to adapt.

It is definitely possible in the future. Who would have imagine that the car industry globally would be increasing moving towards China EV industry ecosystem just few years ago, but it is happening now !!

And the GPU argument, at the consumer level, people are pairing whatever chip they get with Windows or Linux, not Harmony OS. At the enterprise level, even Vietnam is managing to source H100s from the US. Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines? They have access to far more modern and state-of-the-art hardware. So what's the actual point being made here? Unless China actually builds its own hardware from the ground up, develops its own proprietary software, and transfers that tech to other countries to lock them into China's ecosystem, nobody is seriously walking away from the US and Western ecosystem for what China has to offer right now.

At the consumer level, people interact with the LLM. The compute is provided by the the data center.

China is building the hardware GPU/AI Chips that supply the data center. China has full spectrum of hardware architecture for data center like the power supply, optical interconnect system etc. that is competitive on offer.

Data center is big investment, if they provide significant saving and provide equivalent or even better compute resource then countries would adopt them. That means that nVidia would lose business, and also China would get to set the standard of data center architecture.

 

[ziaulislam]

I'm not saying China can't build its own OS, architecture, or ecosystem. That's absolutely on the table. My argument was never about that. It's about adoption outside of China. And if you genuinely believe China can just sustain itself in isolation, then cool, but don't quote me into that conversation.

Take Harmony OS. Last time I checked, you still can't run Gmail or most foreign banking apps on it without Google's certificate. Has that actually changed? And even if Huawei rolls out a Gmail equivalent for Harmony, why would anyone outside China bother? Who's going to blow their budget overhauling infrastructure and protocols for that? Are there even any native foreign banking apps on Harmony OS yet? And the desktop side? Even Linux has stronger developer and enterprise backing than that.

I have never seen a Southeast Asian country adopt Harmony OS. East Asia surely won't touch a Chinese ecosystem, and why would any Southeast Asian country risk their economic and tech ties with East Asia and the West just to run a Chinese OS? That trade-off makes zero sense. Please explain that to me.

And the GPU argument, at the consumer level, people are pairing whatever chip they get with Windows or Linux, not Harmony OS. At the enterprise level, even Vietnam is managing to source H100s from the US. Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines? They have access to far more modern and state-of-the-art hardware. So what's the actual point being made here? Unless China actually builds its own hardware from the ground up, develops its own proprietary software, and transfers that tech to other countries to lock them into China's ecosystem, nobody is seriously walking away from the US and Western ecosystem for what China has to offer right now.

China doesnt need to force an adoption it has 1.5 billion population.. people will adopt its system once it scales

People said that about Chinese cars, batteries and kther technologies too

 

[Yellow is Okay]

Err.. I am confuse now. You are the one that quote and reply me in a my conversation with others on US banning Nvidia GPU to China. I mention China having a alternative OS as an analogy, no suggesting that China is moving towards that now.

Like I have mentioned, China needs to develop own GPU or AI chip because nVIdia is banned and it has no choice. China is also developing alternative OS, but unlike GPU, OS is not banned by US. China would have to move to domestic version if it is.

If that happen, thinking that China running a different OS would be disintegration is problematic. It is perfectly possible for both system to coexist. Different country run different system on multiple level, they can still trade and communicate all the time.

And also, if Harmony OS offer features that are way better, like integration with IoT or other feature that are not available with traditional OS, or Huawei phone that has extraordinary features that are very luringly attractive, then there are chances that foreign market might gradually move to adapt.

It is definitely possible in the future. Who would have imagine that the car industry globally would be increasing moving towards China EV industry ecosystem just few years ago, but it is happening now !!


At the consumer level, people interact with the LLM. The compute is provided by the the data center.

China is building the hardware GPU/AI Chips that supply the data center. China has full spectrum of hardware architecture for data center like the power supply, optical interconnect system etc. that is competitive on offer.

Data center is big investment, if they provide significant saving and provide equivalent or even better compute resource then countries would adopt them. That means that nVidia would lose business, and also China would get to set the standard of data center architecture.

I quoted you to talk about the negatives of moving to China's own OS. Me talking about self-sufficient is me being cautious, unless we're already heading into that conversation.

A GPU with its own architecture and drivers is designed to run on a specific OS, meaning you need specific hardware for that. So the question is, are Chinese GPU drivers open source? If yes, people can pair them with Windows or Linux. If they're closed source, do they even support Windows or Linux? Because some Chinese GPU drivers are actually compatible with Windows right now.

 

[KAL-EL]

Google Pixel 10 phone

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

Google Pixel 10 phone

What about it?

 

[KAL-EL]

What about it?

lol think I might have posted it in the wrong place but what about it? It's a great phone that's come down in price and I managed to snag one for a good price

I think it was due to the words AI chip in the thread cover

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

lol think I might have posted it in the wrong place but what about it? It's a great phone that's come down in price and I managed to snag one for a good price

I think it was due to the words AI chip in the thread cover

No worries.

How much memory and storage?

 

[KAL-EL]

No worries.

How much memory and storage?

Only 128 gig unfortunately. 12 gigs of RAM and not 16 with the higher pro model, But I got it for 400 USD new

 

[冖_冖]

Huawei Atlas 950 SuperPoD claims 6.7x more computing power than Nvidia NVL144

Huawei attended the WAIC – World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2026 on July 16 and showcased a prototype of the Atlas 950 SuperPoD. The company revealed that the new tech solution is the industry’s largest AI computing supernode system. According to the information (via), Huawei unveiled...

www.huaweicentral.com

Huawei Atlas 950 SuperPoD claims 6.7x more computing power than Nvidia NVL144​

19 hours ago on July 17, 2026

Huawei attended the WAIC – World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2026 on July 16 and showcased a prototype of the Atlas 950 SuperPoD. The company revealed that the new tech solution is the industry’s largest AI computing supernode system.

According to the information (via), Huawei unveiled the Atlas 950 SuperNode at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition. It revealed certain highlights of its new AI tech solution.

SuperPoD or supernode refers to ultra-large-scale AI computing frameworks that connect thousands of AI chips like GPUs or NPUs in a single logical unit using high-speed interconnection to power up the training of large artificial intelligence models.

Huawei Atlas 950 SuperPoD: Highlights​

Details reveal that the Atlas 950 cluster uses TB-level NPU interconnect ultra-large bandwidth, and 3µs ultra-low RTT latency. Huawei has used a self-made Lingqu interconnection protocol and an upgraded supernode architecture for the new AI cluster.

Atlas 950 SuperPoD contains 1024 Ascend chips and can connect up to 8192 NPUs. Thus, it can provide training and inference to LLMs with trillions of parameters.

In addition, the Chinese tech giant reportedly mentioned that Atlas 950 SuperPoD can provide 6.7 times more computing power and 15 times more memory capacity than NVL144 – Nvidia’s next-generation AI supernode cluster technology.

The Atlas 950 further offers 1 EFLOPS FP8 and 2 EFLOPS FP4 computing power coupled with 256 TB of international unified memory space. These key specs are enough to support efficient training of LLMs (with billions of nodes).

Ultra-large bandwidth and RTT (Round-Trip Time, which measures the total time a data packet takes to travel from a source to a destination and back) can eliminate the challenges of resources like computing and storage in outdated large clusters.

Despite the US restrictions on advanced chipmaking tools, Huawei and China are making efforts to break the chains restricting their tech and chip growth. And looking at the latest creation, it seems the company is getting fruitful results in its efforts.