Huawei has not publicly proved that its Ascend chips outsell Nvidia’s in China. Huawei rotating chairman Eric Xu said he believed Ascend’s market share “should be bigger than Nvidia’s,” but Reuters reported that Huawei offered no supporting data and Xu acknowledged that reliable Nvidia market-share figures are difficult to obtain. Independent estimates suggest a major shift: Bernstein estimated the two companies were roughly tied in 2025 and forecast Huawei would lead in 2026.
What is Huawei’s share of China’s AI-chip market?
There is no verified, audited figure in the cited reporting that establishes Huawei’s current share or confirms that its chip sales have surpassed Nvidia’s. The clearest numerical comparison comes from Bernstein estimates reported by the Associated Press in June 2026:
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| Period | Nvidia | Huawei | What the figures mean |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | About 40% | Roughly 40% | Bernstein estimates reported by AP; not audited sales figures. |
| 2026 | Around 8% | Around 50% | Bernstein forecasts reported by AP, not confirmed results. |
These percentages describe estimated market share, not a published tally of chips sold. AP’s report does not detail a methodology that would make the figures directly comparable to company-reported unit sales. Treat the 2026 numbers as a forecast, not a measured outcome. Associated Press, June 2026
What Huawei’s chairman said—and what he did not establish
In September 2026, Huawei rotating chairman Eric Xu said: “I think Ascend market share should be bigger than Nvidia’s.” Reuters reported that he also described reliable Nvidia market-share data as difficult to obtain. Huawei did not provide data supporting his estimate, so this is Huawei’s claim rather than independent confirmation that Ascend sales have overtaken Nvidia’s. Reuters, republished by Investing.com, September 2026
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Why the sales and market-share comparisons are easy to confuse
Unit sales from 2024 are a different measure
A July 2025 MERICS report said more than 1 million Nvidia H20 chips were sold in China in 2024, compared with 200,000 Huawei AI chips. Those are historical unit figures for a different year and scope; they are not a direct substitute for Bernstein’s later market-share estimates. MERICS, July 2025
Company revenue is not Ascend revenue
Huawei reported CNY 880.9 billion in total company revenue and CNY 192.3 billion in research and development investment for 2025. Those company-wide figures do not disclose Ascend-specific sales and cannot be used to calculate the AI-chip line’s market share. Huawei, March 2026
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Does a market-share lead mean Huawei has replaced Nvidia?
No. Market share, chip performance, supply, and use in real AI systems are different questions. 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. It also reported that some leading Chinese AI training continues to rely on Nvidia chips, while demand for AI chips in China exceeds available supply. A domestic share gain therefore does not show that Nvidia has been fully replaced or that the two suppliers are interchangeable for every workload. Associated Press, June 2026
Software compatibility and system-level deployment also matter alongside chip specifications. MERICS’s July 2025 report described challenges for Huawei’s CANN software stack and MindSpore framework, and said Huawei chips were then especially unsuitable for large LLM training runs. That assessment reflects the report’s 2025 time frame; it should not be treated as a definitive evaluation of every later Ascend generation or current deployment. MERICS, July 2025
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is driving the shift, and what comes next?
Export controls and Chinese efforts to encourage domestic chips are part of the context, but no single factor explains the reported shift. Product availability, manufacturing capacity, procurement choices, software support, and whether a chip suits a particular training or inference workload all affect adoption. Huawei said demand in China exceeded 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.” That describes a supply constraint and Huawei’s stated sales strategy—not proof of a particular market-share figure. Reuters, republished by Investing.com, September 2026
Huawei has announced plans for Ascend 960DT and 960PR launches in 2027, followed by plans for Ascend 970 in 2028 and Ascend 980 in 2029. These are announced schedules, not products already available. Reuters, republished by Investing.com, September 2026
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