Where is Nvidia? Chinese rivals take the limelight at major AI event in Shanghai

BEIJING — Less than 2 weeks aft Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's high-profile visit to Beijing, the U.S. chipmaker was conspicuous by its lack astatine China's biggest AI lawsuit of the year.

Despite renewed hopes this period of selling its little precocious H20 chips to China again, Nvidia didn't person a booth astatine the World AI Conference that opened Saturday successful Shanghai. The institution declined CNBC's petition for comment.

In contrast, Nvidia's China rival, Huawei, had a ample show — focused connected its Ascend AI chips — adjacent the venue entrance. Huang has called Huawei "one of the astir formidable technology companies successful the world," portion informing that it could regenerate Nvidia successful China if U.S. sticks with its export curbs connected Beijing.

The telecoms elephantine showed disconnected for the archetypal time the hardware for its computing strategy that links 384 Ascend chips unneurotic to powerfulness AI exemplary grooming and use. Huawei is selling the merchandise arsenic "Atlas 900 A3 SuperPoD."

Earlier this year, research firm SemiAnalysis pointed retired that adjacent though 1 Ascend spot whitethorn beryllium little almighty than Nvidia's astir precocious Blackwell chip, an aboriginal look astatine a Huawei strategy akin to the 1 unveiled successful Shanghai more than offsets the disparity by piling successful 5 times more chips than Nvidia does successful its GB200 computing system. But there's an ratio outgo arsenic Huawei's systems necessitate acold much power than Nvidia's to operate, the study said.

Huawei is acold from being the lone Chinese subordinate successful the analyzable supply concatenation for precocious chips. For example, semiconductor decorator Moore Threads and startup Yunsilicon some had booths astatine the AI expo halfway successful Shanghai.

Many of the exhibitors from startups to giants specified arsenic Tencent and Alibaba showed disconnected AI applications successful robotics, astute glasses and translation apps. Overall, determination was little speech astatine the expo astir needing Nvidia to powerfulness their products.

Internet tech company NetEase's Youdao concern displayed a handheld barroom instrumentality that uses AI to assistance students survey worldly including that for assemblage entranceway exams.

The instrumentality presently uses some AI based successful the unreality and "edge" AI that runs connected the device, said Gao Huituan, merchandise manager of acquisition learning hardware astatine Youdao.

Looking ahead, helium said that caller AI chips are becoming much powerfulness businesslike and are capable to enactment antithetic types of products.

While Nvidia's chips absorption much connected unreality computing power, "many domestically made, precise fantabulous spot manufacturers are moving connected immoderate borderline devices," helium said successful Mandarin, translated by CNBC. "Now everyone has comparatively bully computing power."

Nvidia has go the world's astir invaluable company, riding connected the request for its chips that person been heled thrust the latest generative AI breakthroughs.

The institution had to halt income to China successful April owed to caller U.S. restrictions, pursuing tougher export controls implicit the past 3 years aimed astatine reducing China's AI capabilities and which person prevented Nvidia from selling its astir precocious chips to the country. The institution tailored the H20 for China, which Huang has said is simply a $50 cardinal market.

Tesla, Google, Amazon Web Services and Siemens were among the U.S. and European companies with booths astatine the AI league successful Shanghai.

Nvidia had a booth successful Beijing earlier this period astatine an yearly proviso concatenation conference, which coincided with Huang's 3rd sojourn to China this twelvemonth and quality that the U.S. volition let the chipmaker to resume income of the H20 chips to China.

But the institution has not shared erstwhile shipments would statesman oregon however galore orders it had received from Chinese customers.

"Nvidia is the exemplary successful (AI) GPU improvement for the abbreviated to mean word not conscionable due to the fact that of H20, but besides due to the fact that of flagship products similar the GB300," Phelix Lee, elder equity expert astatine Morningstar, said successful an emailed statement. "The instrumentality of H20 could assistance Nvidia to stay arsenic the de facto modular successful AI datacenter systems, particularly erstwhile home alternatives are lurking."

Beijing has been striving to boost tech self-sufficiency arsenic it has faced U.S. restrictions accessing high-end tech. The state implicit the play besides took different measurement toward promoting its AI standards globally. 

Chinese Premier Li Qiang announced plans for a global AI practice organization during a code astatine Saturday's opening ceremony. The archetypal headquarters volition apt beryllium successful Shanghai, authorities media said.

The plans travel conscionable days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced an American enactment program for AI that included calls to trim alleged "woke" bias successful AI models and enactment the deployment of U.S. tech overseas.