Chinese tech firm, Huawei has commenced delivery of its advanced AI chips “cluster” to domestic customers that were cut off from Nvidia chips due to the US-imposed export restrictions.
Huawei is now stepping in as it seeks to provide an alternative to the Nvidia chips to Chinese-owned firms that can no longer access the advanced US AI chips.
Huawei has developed and sold 10 units of the CloudMatrix 384
According to a Financial Times article, citing two people with knowledge of the developments at the company, Huawei has sold over 10 sets of its CloudMatrix 384, which links a large number of chips together.
One of the sources indicated that data centers that serve Chinese tech firms were among the top priorities for Huawei. Industry analysts are impressed by the rate at which the firm has developed the CloudMatric 384 and delivered to customers as it stepped in to close the gap that Nvidia left.
The CloudMatrix is a system that connects 384 AI processors to provide the computing power that is needed to build AI models and services.
“The development of Huawei’s CloudMatrix 384 means China now has an AI system capable of beating Nvidia’s.”
~ Dylan Patel, founder of chip consultancy SemiAnalysis.
This comes as Huawei is speeding up its chip development to help Chinese tech companies compete with their global peers, although they have been restricted from accessing the world’s best technology in the AI sector.
The new Huawei product also comes as Chinese customers have been further slapped with more restrictions from Nvidia’s AI chips as geopolitical tensions intensify. But the restrictions are not only hurting Chinese firms. Earlier this month, Nvidia revealed that it would take $5.5 billion earnings hit following calls by President Donald Trump that its H20 chip now requires special licence to be sold to Chinese clients.
The H20 was previously made to comply with the earlier export controls.
Huawei claims its tech is better than Nvidia’s despite some flaws
Huawei has told its Chinese clients that the CloudMatrix performs significantly better than Nvidia’s NVL72, which according to Financial Times is a popular AI cluster used by US tech firms, which consists of 72 of its GB200 chips, in terms of computing power and memory, as per the company presentation that was reviewed by people with knowledge of the matter.
The CloudMatrix 384 uses Huawei’s Ascend 910C chips, which reportedly underperforms Nvidia’s GB200 processors. Huawei has however used a larger amount of chips – connected by its “super node,” through which all processors in the set are connected using optical technology to boost the cluster’s overall performance.
Huawei has indicated in its presentation that CloudMatrix outperformed NVL72 in key metrics, claiming it is 67% higher in compute and more than three times larger in aggregate memory capacity.
“It is compensating for weaker individual chip performance with advanced networking to boost the chip performance in a cluster,” said Patel.
However, the CloudMatrix 384 has several disadvantages despite the strong metrics. When compared to Nvidia’s rival product, the CloudMatrix 384 consumes more energy, which leads to much higher electricity bills. Additionally, it requires more maintenance from experienced engineers, resulting in operational manpower costs three to five times higher.
Despite the disadvantages, Huawei still wants to take the AI chips market share from Nvidia in China, leveraging the Asian country’s abundant power and engineers, with CloudMatrix as a viable solution for customers who can no longer access Nvidia’s advanced chips.
Industry observers have also indicated that the CloudMatrix 384 costs about $8.2 million a set, compared to $3 million for Nvidia’s NVL72. The exact prices also depend on individual contract. Nvidia has indicated that its price range depend on original equipment manufacturer and customer specifications.
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This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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