Huawei accelerates AI chip roadmap to challenge Nvidia

At its annual summit in Shanghai, Huawei announced an accelerated roadmap for its artificial intelligence infrastructure to compete with Nvidia. The company is introducing the Ascend 960 series, with the 960DT chip expected to arrive in the first quarter of 2027 and the 960PR in the third quarter.

To overcome individual chip limitations and US export restrictions, Huawei is focusing on a systemic approach. This includes the Peerium Computing Architecture and UnifiedBus technology, which aim to connect massive numbers of processors—up to one million—to function as a single computer. Key hardware components unveiled include the Atlas 960E SuperPoD and the TaiShan 950 SuperPoD.

Huawei executives stated that the goal is to provide a foundation for the 'agentic AI' era, where autonomous agents drive massive increases in computing and token demand. The company is also building an open ecosystem, with its Kunpeng platform attracting millions of developers. Notably, the AI startup DeepSeek has already committed to deploying 160,000 Ascend 950DT chips at a data center in Inner Mongolia.