Chinese tech giant Huawei expects its AI chip sales to grow by at least 60 per cent this year, driven by strong demand from Chinese companies, the Financial Times has reported.

Chinese tech companies have placed large orders for Huawei’s Ascend 950PR processor, two people with knowledge of the matter told the paper. Huawei expects revenues from its AI chips to reach around $12 billion this year based on orders it has already received, almost doubling 2025’s $7.5 billion.

The majority of current orders are for its 950PR, which entered mass production in March. Huawei also has a strong chip pipeline; in September last year, deputy chair and former chief executive Xu Zhijun said the company expects to launch its Ascend 950DT, focused on decode inference and model training, in the final quarter of 2026.

Companies in China are increasingly looking for alternatives to chips from the US-based Nvidia, which is mired in regulatory issues stemming from Beijing and Washington.
Two people with knowledge of the matter told the paper that although Nvidia finally received licences to sell its AI-focused H200 semiconductors to Chinese firms in March, no shipments have yet been made due to regulatory issues.

One of the people added that Beijing has told Chinese companies to support domestic producers and limit their use of Nvidia chips inside the country. US regulators, however, require that Nvidia chips ordered by Chinese clients are only to be used in China, meaning H200 shipments have as of yet failed to receive customs clearance.

China has demonstrated it is willing to step in to protect its domestic AI market. On Monday, its National Development and Reform Commission announced that it had blocked Meta’s $2 billion acquisition of Chinese-founded AI company Manus following an investigation.

The FT additionally reported that Huawei could grow its AI chip revenue forecast if it is able to scale production. Compute production is currently a major bottleneck for AI software providers globally: Google Cloud revealed yesterday that it had a backlog of $460 billion in demand for its services.

National Technology News has reached out to Huawei for comment.

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