U.S. sanctions on China backfired as they block Nvidia from getting business in China, thus allowing Huawei to get huge order.
Because the U.S. has banned Nvidia from shipping its H20 AI accelerator to China, Huawei’s AI chip has been doing brisk business in the country. So a policy designed by the U.S. to crush Huawei is actually helping the company. Additionally, Huawei has announced its latest AI accelerator, the Ascend 920. Reportedly, the chip is built by China’s largest foundry SMIC and there is a stunning bit of news that goes along with this.
Since SMIC is banned from obtaining an extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machine, the company has not been able to build a component using a process node more advanced than 7nm. However, a new report about Huawei’s Ascend 920 AI accelerator states that it was manufactured using SMIC’s 6nm node.
