Huawei’s AI chip business is ramping up fast.
On May 1, 2026, the Financial Times reported that Huawei expects its AI chip revenue to grow at least 60% this year, jumping from $7.5 billion in 2025 (approximately 51.2 billion RMB) to $12 billion (approximately 81.9 billion RMB).
Key Driver: Ascend 950PR
The main push behind this growth is Huawei’s new Ascend 950PR chip. The chip officially entered mass production in March 2026, and most of Huawei’s AI chip orders this year come from this new product.
Demand for domestic AI chips among Chinese tech companies is rising rapidly. According to a prior Reuters report, Huawei plans to produce approximately 750,000 Ascend 950PR chips in 2026. While that sounds like a lot, Reuters noted it’s only about 1% of Nvidia’s AI compute chip production — far from meeting China’s overall AI computing needs.
Huawei also plans to launch an upgraded version, the Ascend 950DT, in Q4, further ramping up capacity and performance.
Context
Under continued US restrictions on high-end chip exports, Huawei’s Ascend series has become the primary domestic alternative for AI compute in China. ByteDance, Tencent, Alibaba, and other top tech companies have reportedly placed urgent orders with Huawei for the Ascend 950 series, with demand surging following the release of large models like DeepSeek V4.
A $12 billion AI chip revenue scale means Huawei’s commercial presence in this赛道 is rapidly approaching the range of major global players. For those tracking domestic substitution and AI infrastructure, this news is worth watching.