Nvidia acknowledges Huawei as top competitor in SEC filing

Nvidia has officially recognised Huawei as a leading competitor across various sectors, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) chips. The revelation surfaced in a filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission late Wednesday.

The California-based tech giant identified Huawei, based in China, as a formidable contender in supplying chips tailored for AI applications, encompassing graphics processing units (GPUs), central processing units (CPUs), and networking chips. Moreover, Nvidia acknowledged Huawei's emergence as a cloud service provider, leveraging in-house hardware and software solutions to enhance AI computing capabilities.

When approached for comment on Thursday, Nvidia opted not to provide a statement regarding the matter.

Huawei, renowned for its development of the Ascend series of chips, has positioned itself as a direct competitor to Nvidia's AI chip offerings. Notably, Huawei's flagship product, the 910B chip, is regarded as a primary challenger to Nvidia's A100 chip, which debuted approximately three years ago.

Analysts have pegged the value of China's AI chip market at a substantial $7 billion, underscoring the significance of competition within this lucrative sector.

Notably, last year, Reuters reported on Chinese tech behemoth Baidu's decision to procure chips from Huawei, a strategic move preceding anticipated regulatory changes by the US government aimed at tightening restrictions on the export of advanced AI chips to China.

In addition to Huawei, Nvidia's filing also identifies other prominent rivals in the chip industry, including Intel, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Broadcom, and Qualcomm. Furthermore, the company acknowledges the formidable presence of major cloud computing entities such as Amazon.com and Microsoft.

Following the disclosure, Nvidia's shares witnessed a notable surge of 14 per cent in early afternoon trading on Thursday. The uptick was largely fuelled by the company's issuance of a revenue forecast that exceeded consensus estimates, underpinned by robust demand for AI-related technologies.

(With Reuters inputs)