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Not as a verified sales fact. Huawei rotating chairman Eric Xu said Ascend’s share of China’s AI-chip market “should be bigger than Nvidia’s,” but Huawei did not provide supporting data, and Xu acknowledged that reliable market-share figures are difficult to obtain. An independent estimate reported by the Associated Press suggests Huawei and Nvidia were roughly tied in 2025, with Huawei projected to lead in 2026. Those are estimates and a forecast—not audited sales figures.

What does the market-share evidence say?

The strongest available comparison is an estimate from Bernstein, reported by the Associated Press in June 2026. Bernstein put Nvidia at about 40% of China’s AI-chip market in 2025, roughly matching Huawei, and forecast Nvidia at around 8% and Huawei around 50% in 2026. The 2025 figures are estimates; the 2026 figures are projections. The AP report does not provide a detailed methodology, so these numbers should not be read as exact or universally agreed sales measurements. Associated Press, June 2026

Separately, Reuters reported in September 2026 that Xu believed Ascend’s market share should exceed Nvidia’s. He said reliable Nvidia market-share data was hard to obtain, and Huawei supplied no figures to substantiate the claim. That makes “Huawei has overtaken Nvidia” an attributed Huawei view, not a confirmed comparison of reported chip sales. Reuters, republished by Investing.com, September 2026

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Why sales, unit counts and market share are not interchangeable

Market share can refer to different measures, including revenue, chips shipped, or a share of demand within a defined market. The sources do not establish a common audited basis for comparing Huawei and Nvidia, so a unit count from one year cannot validate a later market-share estimate.

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For historical context, a MERICS report published in July 2025 said Nvidia sold more than 1 million H20 chips in China in 2024, compared with 200,000 AI chips sold by Huawei. This is a dated unit comparison from a different period and scope; it should not be substituted for Bernstein’s estimates of market share in 2025 or forecast for 2026. MERICS, July 2025

Does a market-share lead mean Ascend matches Nvidia technically?

No. Market position and chip performance are separate questions. The AP reported that Huawei leads among Chinese chipmakers and that analysts see the Ascend 950 series as roughly comparable to Nvidia’s H200 by some measures. The same report said Huawei’s high-performance chips still lag Nvidia’s most advanced technology in many areas. A comparison on selected measures does not establish parity across workloads, systems or the full product range. Associated Press, June 2026

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Nor does a domestic share gain mean Nvidia has been fully replaced. AP reported that some leading Chinese AI training continues to rely on Nvidia chips, while demand for AI chips in China exceeds available supply. Which chip is suitable depends on the workload and the ability to deploy it at the required scale.

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What is driving the shift—and what remains uncertain?

Export controls and government encouragement of domestic chips form part of the market context described in the reporting, but they do not by themselves explain the change. Product availability, domestic procurement, manufacturing capacity, software support and workload suitability also affect adoption. The sources do not establish a single cause or quantify each factor’s contribution.

Huawei has said domestic demand exceeds its AI-computing supply. Xu said: “Since we don’t have enough capacity to even satisfy the demand in China, we don’t have a plan to expand into the international market in a fully-fledged way.” This points to supply capacity as a constraint on the company’s strategy; demand exceeding supply is not proof of market share. Reuters, republished by Investing.com, September 2026

Software is another part of the comparison. A July 2025 MERICS report described challenges in Huawei’s CANN and MindSpore software stacks and judged Huawei chips especially unsuitable for large language model training runs at that time. That assessment predates the latest Ascend generations and later market estimates; it should not be generalized to every current deployment. MERICS, July 2025

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What has Huawei announced for future Ascend chips?

Reuters reported Huawei’s announced schedule for future products: Ascend 960DT and 960PR launches planned for 2027, followed by plans for Ascend 970 in 2028 and Ascend 980 in 2029. These are forward-looking schedules, not confirmation that the chips are already available. Reuters, republished by Investing.com, September 2026

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What Huawei’s company results do—and do not—show

Huawei reported CNY 880.9 billion in company-wide revenue and CNY 192.3 billion in research and development investment for 2025. These corporate totals are not Ascend revenue and do not establish AI-chip sales or market share. Huawei’s annual-report release described plans to develop an ecosystem around Ascend, Kunpeng and HarmonyOS, but did not give an Ascend-specific revenue figure. Huawei, March 2026

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