TLDR: Chinese tech giant Huawei is reportedly seeking to export its older-generation Ascend 910B AI chips to markets in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand. This move aims to challenge Nvidia’s strong presence in these regions, which have already committed to substantial AI chip purchases from U.S. firms. Huawei is offering these chips in limited quantities, with no deals finalized yet, as it navigates U.S. trade restrictions and prioritizes its more advanced chips for the domestic Chinese market.
Huawei Technologies Co. is reportedly making strategic overtures to export its artificial intelligence (AI) chips to emerging markets in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. This initiative is seen as a direct challenge to the dominant position held by U.S. chip designer Nvidia in the global AI hardware landscape.
The Chinese telecom giant is offering its older-generation Ascend 910B AI processors, designed for AI training and inference workloads, to potential customers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and Thailand. Reports indicate that Huawei is proposing these chips in modest volumes, ranging from a few thousand units, though exact figures remain unconfirmed. The company has reportedly approached entities such as the Mohamed bin Zayed University of AI in the UAE and government-linked groups like the Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA) in Saudi Arabia.
This push comes as the Middle East, particularly the Gulf nations, has rapidly emerged as a critical battleground for AI development and a booming market for AI chips. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have already committed to acquiring ‘well over a million’ chips from American companies like Nvidia and AMD, signaling their substantial investment in AI infrastructure and a current preference for U.S. technology. Thailand, too, is heavily integrating Nvidia’s technology into its national AI development plans.
Huawei’s export strategy is a direct consequence of years of U.S. restrictions, which have significantly reshaped the semiconductor industry. Since being added to the U.S. Entity List in 2019, Huawei has been compelled to develop alternative technologies and supply chains due to restricted access to critical U.S. components. This has led to a bifurcated strategy: Huawei is reserving its more advanced Ascend 910C chips for domestic Chinese firms that cannot access best-in-class American chips, while attempting to introduce the older 910B models to international markets.
In addition to the 910B chips, Huawei is also promoting CloudMatrix 384, a remote-access AI system based in China that is powered by its more advanced Ascend 910C chips. However, the company is not currently ready to export these advanced systems due to limited supplies, prioritizing their distribution within China to foster technological self-reliance.
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As of recent reports, no deals for the Ascend 910B chips have been finalized. Interest from parties in the UAE has reportedly been low, and the status of discussions in Thailand remains unclear. Conversations in Saudi Arabia, however, appear to be more advanced. Huawei’s efforts reflect its determination to establish a foothold in foreign AI markets and increase its manufacturing capacity, even as its Ascend chips are estimated to be at least a generation behind Nvidia’s offerings. Representatives for Huawei, the Thai government, and the Saudi government’s media office did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding these developments.
