Nvidia loses ground to Huawei in China’s AI chip market

Nvidia’s advanced AI chip business in China has stalled as U.S. export controls and Beijing’s self-sufficiency push reshape the market. Restrictions initially blocked sales of Nvidia’s H200 chips, and by the time Donald Trump agreed to allow them, Chinese authorities were encouraging companies to adopt locally designed alternatives led by Huawei.

Jensen Huang said Nvidia had about 95% market share in China before export controls barred the company from much of the market. Bernstein estimated Nvidia had about a 40% market share in China’s AI chips market in 2025, roughly matched by Huawei, and predicted Nvidia’s share will fall to around 8% this year while Huawei rises to about 50%.

Huawei’s Ascend 950 series is viewed by some analysts as roughly comparable to Nvidia’s H200 by certain measures, though Nvidia remains important for Chinese AI development. Analysts said cutting-edge work, including training models such as DeepSeek’s, still relies on Nvidia chips, and smuggling cases show continued demand. DeepSeek said its latest V4 model rolled out in April was adapted for Huawei’s Ascend chips, signaling progress toward domestic replacements without an abrupt shift away from Nvidia.