Reuters: Nvidia’s market share in China declines as Huawei and others fill the gap

Reuters (Japanese edition), October 13 report: According to a report from research firm IDC, Nvidia’s share of China’s data center artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor market fell to 34% in the first half of this year. The market void created by U.S. export restrictions has been filled by Chinese companies including Huawei.

According to IDC data, Nvidia’s AI semiconductor shipments to China totaled 678,000 units, a 44% year-on-year decline. It remains unclear which products are included in Nvidia’s reported market share.

Huawei’s AI semiconductor shipments rose from 300,000 units last year to 572,000 units this year, capturing 28% of the total market.

T-Head, Alibaba’s semiconductor design unit, accounted for 7% of the market, followed by Cambricon at 5%, Kunlun chips under Baidu at 4%, and Hygon Information Technology at 3%. Among the 11 Chinese semiconductor manufacturers surveyed by IDC, nine recorded year-on-year shipment growth.

In the first half of the year, total AI semiconductor sales reached 2,008,000 units. Shipments of graphics processing units (GPUs)—widely used for training AI models—increased by 26% to 991,000 units, according to IDC, citing limited supply of products available in the mainland market.

Shipments of AI semiconductors other than GPUs grew nearly 80% to 1,016,000 units, including chips designed specifically for certain AI tasks such as running pre-trained models.

In the non-GPU segment, Huawei, T-Head, Kunlun chips, and Cambricon collectively held 95% of the market share. IDC notes that government agencies, internet companies, and telecom operators are continuing to advance procurement activities.

IDC highlights that competition is shifting from individual chip performance to overall system capabilities, such as semiconductor performance within large-scale computing clusters.

China’s AI semiconductor shipments are projected to see a 9% decline in GPU volume and a 19% increase in total volume by 2026.

Original article: toutiao.com/article/1878922979185740/

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