Huawei launches new AI chips and systems to challenge Nvidia

Huawei Technologies announced a new generation of artificial intelligence chips and advanced computing systems at its annual summit in Shanghai on Thursday, accelerating its challenge to Nvidia's dominance in the global AI hardware market. The Chinese technology giant unveiled the Ascend 960 SuperPoD cluster and detailed plans for two new chips, the Ascend 960DT and Ascend 960PR, scheduled for launch in 2027. Rotating Chairman David Wang said the Ascend 960DT, designed for AI model training, will be available in the first quarter of 2027, three quarters ahead of its original schedule. The Ascend 960PR, optimized for AI inference, is planned for the third quarter of 2027. The announcements were made at the Huawei Connect 2026 conference. The company also introduced its new Atlas 960 SuperPoD, a computing cluster that can connect up to 4,000 processors. This system integrates Huawei's upgraded UnifiedBus interconnect technology with its HiONE optical system and incorporates near-packaged optics for the first time to improve speed and energy efficiency. Wang stated that Huawei's largest linked systems, called superclusters, can theoretically support up to one million AI processors.