Few companies embody the intersection of technology and geopolitics, quite like Huawei. Once seen primarily as a telecoms hardware supplier, the Chinese tech giant has spent the past few years trying to reimagine itself under the weight of international scrutiny and American-led sanctions. Now, it is doing just that—through silicon.

Earlier this year, Huawei quietly introduced the Ascend 910C, a new artificial intelligence chip that many analysts see as a direct challenge to NVIDIA’s dominance in the field. Developed in-house and produced in spite of restrictions limiting China’s access to advanced chipmaking equipment, the 910C is more than just another product. It is a political statement—and a technological milestone rolled into one.

Huawei – From dependency to defiance

The launch of the Ascend 910C did not come out of nowhere. Since 2019, Huawei has been subject to sweeping export controls from the United States, cutting it off from American components and software. What followed was a forced pivot inward. The company doubled down on its own chip development, leaning heavily on its HiSilicon division and Chinese manufacturing partners.

By 2024, that bet began to show results. The new chip reportedly manufactured using a 7-nanometre process, stacks together two of Huawei’s earlier-generation 910B units. It boasts performance benchmarks that rival, on paper at least, NVIDIA’s H100—currently considered the gold standard in AI computing. Early reports suggest it can deliver up to 800 teraflops of FP16 computing power, with 3.2 terabytes per second of memory bandwidth.

These are not minor achievements. Producing chips at this level requires not just advanced design skills but also manufacturing precision—something most believed was out of reach for China under current sanctions.

What this means for Huawei—and for China

For Huawei, the Ascend 910C is a lifeline. Without access to NVIDIA’s hardware, Chinese companies developing large AI models are in urgent need of alternatives. The government, too, has a vested interest in reducing dependency on foreign technology, particularly in strategic sectors like artificial intelligence.

The chip is expected to ship widely within China in 2025. According to reports from Reuters and local sources, Huawei plans to prioritise domestic cloud providers, research institutions, and AI-focused enterprises. There is little expectation that the chip will be made available internationally, at least for now—but that was never the point.

This is about securing the home front, proving that innovation can continue under pressure, and showing that China is not as technologically isolated as some Western policymakers may have hoped.

A changing global chip landscape

Huawei’s latest move adds a new wrinkle to an already tense global semiconductor race. As the United States, the European Union, Japan, and others scramble to onshore production and secure their own chip supplies, China is doing the same—albeit from a more restricted position.

What is remarkable, however, is how quickly this transition appears to be happening. Five years ago, few outside China would have predicted that a domestic player could produce a high-end AI chip within such tight constraints. Now, Huawei has done just that—if not quite matching the global leaders, then at least getting close enough to spark concern.

Yet challenges remain. Manufacturing at scale is one thing; maintaining parity with NVIDIA and AMD, who continue to advance with access to top-tier equipment and global talent, is another. Moreover, many of the critical tools needed to produce chips at 5nm and below—such as extreme ultraviolet lithography—are still out of reach for Chinese firms.

A symbolic breakthrough

What the Ascend 910C represents is not dominance but determination. In many ways, it is a reminder that technological progress is rarely linear—and that adversity often speeds up innovation rather than stopping it.

For now, Huawei’s chip is unlikely to displace NVIDIA in global markets. But it does send a clear message: China is not waiting to catch up. It is building, adapting, and—where necessary—going it alone.

Whether that path leads to true self-sufficiency or further fragmentation of the tech world remains to be seen. But with the Ascend 910C, Huawei has placed its marker—and the rest of the world is watching.