Huawei to Double Ascend AI Chip Production by 2026

Huawei Technologies Co. plans to double the production of its marquee 910C Ascend AI chips to approximately 600,000 units in 2026. The company intends to increase total output for the Ascend product line to 1.6 million dies that year, up from 1 million in 2025. Supported by partner Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. and Beijing-backed subsidies, this expansion aims to provide domestic alternatives for Chinese clients like Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu as Nvidia faces U.S. export restrictions.

Rotating Chairman Eric Xu recently unveiled a three-year roadmap through 2028 including the Ascend 950, 960, and 970 chips, as well as a UnifiedBus interconnect protocol to link up to 15,488 chips. To further increase compute density, Huawei filed patents with the China Intellectual Property Office for a quad-chiplet packaging structure for the upcoming Ascend 910D processor, moving beyond the dual-die layout of the 910C.

Despite these efforts, Huawei faces technical hurdles including thermal management, yield losses, and U.S. sanctions that have stalled its node development at 7 nanometers, while Nvidia utilizes 4nm technology. To challenge Nvidia's software dominance, Huawei is promoting its CANN AI toolkit and Atlas AI platform as alternatives to the industry-standard CUDA ecosystem.