Baidu ordered AI chips from Huawei this 12 months, Reuters reported citing two folks acquainted with the matter, including to indicators that U.S. strain is prompting Chinese language acceptance of the agency’s merchandise as a substitute for Nvidia’s. From the report: One of many folks stated Baidu, certainly one of China’s main AI companies, which operates the Ernie massive language mannequin, positioned the order in August, forward of broadly anticipated new guidelines by the U.S. authorities that in October tightened restrictions on exports of chips and chip instruments to China, together with these of U.S. chip large Nvidia.
Baidu ordered 1,600 of Huawei’s 910B Ascend AI chips – which the Chinese language agency developed as a substitute for Nvidia’s A100 chip – for 200 servers, the supply stated, including that by October, Huawei had delivered extra 60% of the order, or about 1,000 chips, to Baidu. The second individual stated that the order’s complete worth was roughly 450 million yuan ($61.83 million) and that Huawei was to ship the entire chips by the tip of this 12 months. Though the order is tiny relative to the hundreds of chips prime Chinese language tech companies have traditionally ordered from Nvidia, the sources stated it was vital, because it confirmed how some companies may shift away from the U.S. firm.
