Huawei’s rotating chairman Eric Xu told the media on September 30, 2026 that the company’s Ascend line of neural processing units (NPUs) has passed Nvidia in Chinese market share. He said the data they have collected shows Ascend “has surpassed Nvidia.” The claim comes after the United States tightened export controls on high‑end AI accelerators, which forced Chinese data‑centers to look for domestic alternatives.
Why the claim matters
If Huawei’s chips truly dominate the Chinese market, Chinese AI developers will face fewer supply interruptions, because the chips are not subject to sudden export bans. For a typical Chinese startup, this could mean more reliable access to compute power for training and serving models, even if the chips are technically slower than Nvidia’s top products.
Why it matters
Chinese AI firms can count on a steady supply of Ascend chips, reducing the risk of production stalls caused by export bans. However, the claim is based on Huawei’s own data, and independent market figures are not publicly available, so the exact size of Nvidia’s remaining share remains unclear.
