Huawei is increasingly positioning itself as Nvidia’s most credible challenger in the global artificial intelligence (AI) technology race, expanding its capabilities across both AI hardware and software. While Nvidia continues to lead the market with its powerful AI processors and dominant CUDA software platform, Huawei’s Ascend processors are gaining traction, particularly in China, where government support, local procurement preferences and a growing domestic market are accelerating adoption. This captive market is giving Huawei valuable opportunities to scale production, increase AI chip revenues and reinvest in research and development.
Huawei is also making significant progress in closing the software gap with Nvidia. In August 2025, the company open-sourced key components of its CANN AI computing toolkit and expanded its collaboration with Chinese AI developers, laboratories and universities through the Ascend developer community. Its torch_npu plugin allows developers to run standard PyTorch code on Ascend processors, reducing one of the biggest barriers to switching from Nvidia’s CUDA ecosystem. Partnerships with AI innovators such as DeepSeek, whose open-weight models can operate across both Nvidia and Huawei hardware, could further expand the reach of Huawei’s AI platform and strengthen its growing ecosystem.
Although Huawei still faces challenges, including lower hardware efficiency and a less mature software ecosystem compared with Nvidia, its rapid progress demonstrates that the gap is no longer static. By combining hardware development, software innovation, government-backed demand and a growing developer community, Huawei is building the foundations of a more independent AI stack and strengthening China’s position in the global technology race. As the competition shifts from simply producing advanced chips to controlling the full AI ecosystem, Huawei’s advances could make it an increasingly influential force in shaping the future of AI computing.
Source: www.bruegel.org
