Huawei and Chinese chipmakers raise AI chip prices by up to 50%

Chinese chip manufacturers are significantly increasing prices for artificial intelligence hardware, with some hikes reaching up to 50%. Huawei has raised the reference price for its Ascend 950DT accelerator card to over 250,000 yuan (approximately $37,255), representing a 20% to 50% increase compared to prices offered less than two months ago. The company expects the 950DT chip to be available in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Other domestic firms, including Cambricon, MetaX, and Iluvatar CoreX, have also implemented price increases ranging from 20% to 30%. These rising costs are largely attributed to a global shortage of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), a critical component for AI computing that allows processors to access large amounts of data at high speeds.

The price surge follows tightened U.S. export controls on advanced HBM products to China. Consequently, Chinese manufacturers have increasingly relied on gray market channels to secure supplies, which often incur much higher costs than standard market rates. This trend occurs as Beijing encourages domestic companies to adopt local alternatives to Nvidia products.