--- title: "Nvidia falls to 34% of China's AI chip market as Huawei takes 28%" description: "An IDC shipment ledger seen by Reuters puts Nvidia at 34% of China's data-center AI chips in the first half of 2026, on shipments 44% below a year earlier. Non-GPU accelerators outsold GPUs for the first time, and Huawei took 28% of a market that kept growing." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Silicon" published: 2026-10-13T13:17:40.403Z modified: 2026-10-13T13:24:06.263Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/nvidia-falls-to-34-of-china-s-ai-chip-market-as-huawei-takes-28 language: en keywords: "Nvidia, Huawei, China, Semiconductors, Export Controls" --- # Nvidia falls to 34% of China's AI chip market as Huawei takes 28% > An IDC shipment ledger seen by Reuters puts Nvidia at 34% of China's data-center AI chips in the first half of 2026, on shipments 44% below a year earlier. Non-GPU accelerators outsold GPUs for the first time, and Huawei took 28% of a market that kept growing. The shipment ledger IDC, the market-research firm, compiled for China's data-center AI chips in the first half of 2026, [seen by Reuters and published on October 13](https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/technology/nvidia-s-china-ai-chip-share-falls-as-huawei-closes-gap-report-finds/ar-AA2e6MYO), settles the argument over America's export controls [1]. [Nvidia](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/nvidia)'s share fell to 34%, on 678,000 accelerators shipped, 44% fewer than a year earlier [1][2]. [Jensen Huang](https://theinference.org/markets/people/jensen-huang), Nvidia's chief executive, has argued repeatedly that Washington's rules force his company to cede China's $50 billion AI chip market to [Huawei](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/huawei) [2]. The ledger shows the ceding is well advanced. ## The growth moved onto silicon Nvidia cannot ship Total accelerator shipments in China reached 2.008 million units in the first half, so the market itself kept growing [1]. GPUs, the chips most widely used to train AI models and the category Nvidia dominates, fell 26% to 991,000 units, squeezed by export rules and by Beijing's requirement that companies obtain approval to import even compliant Nvidia chips [1][2]. Every other kind of accelerator, silicon often tuned to running already-trained models, rose almost 80% to 1.016 million units and passed GPUs by volume for the first time in IDC's reported period [1][2][7]. Huawei, the Chinese equipment maker, shipped 572,000 units against just over 300,000 a year earlier, taking 28% of the whole market [1]. Huawei, [Alibaba](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/alibaba)'s chip-design unit T-Head, [Baidu](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/baidu)'s Kunlunxin unit and Cambricon, a Chinese AI-chip designer, together hold 95% of that non-GPU segment, and nine of the eleven Chinese chipmakers IDC tracks grew shipments [1][2]. *Chart: **Nvidia's China lead narrows to 34%, with Huawei at 28%** Bar chart of China's data-center AI accelerator market shares in the first half of 2026: Nvidia 34%, Huawei 28%, T-Head 7%, Cambricon 5%, Kunlunxin 4%, Hygon 3%.* *Share of China's data-center AI accelerator market by unit shipments, first half of 2026. IDC data reviewed by Reuters. T-Head is Alibaba's chip-design unit; Kunlunxin is Baidu's. [1][2]* ## Huawei's answer is to wire weaker chips into one machine IDC says competition in China is shifting from the performance of a single chip to how well chips work inside large computing clusters [1]. That is Huawei's play exactly. Its Peerium architecture uses UnifiedBus links to make individually weaker domestic chips behave as one machine, and its Atlas 950 SuperCluster is built to connect up to 256,000 accelerator cards [4]. The next Ascend chip, the 960DT, has been [pulled forward to the first quarter of 2027 from a planned third-quarter debut](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/17/huawei-plans-q1-2027-launch-of-new-ai-chip-as-it-takes-on-nvidia/) [4][5]. The binding constraint on China's build has therefore moved from American supply to Huawei itself. TechRepublic, citing Reuters, [reports the company cannot produce enough AI computing equipment to meet Chinese demand](https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-huawei-ascend-960dt-ai-chip-2027-china-apac/) [5]. Its Ascend software ecosystem counts about 5,270 monthly active developers [6], against the years of tooling [Nvidia's CUDA platform](https://theinference.org/article/deepseek-just-gave-away-the-software-layer-nvidia-s-china-moat-stands-on) has accumulated [5]. ## Nvidia's China demand has learned to buy elsewhere Nvidia has already booked this door closing once, with a [$4.5 billion charge on China-bound H20 inventory](https://www.cxodigitalpulse.com/nvidias-china-ai-chip-share-drops-to-34-as-huawei-narrows-the-gap/), the chip it designed for China, after Washington imposed license requirements in April 2025 [3]. The customers it lost in the first half bought domestic silicon instead, under a Beijing approval regime that still gates Nvidia imports [1]. Winning them back would take more than a policy reversal. Two numbers frame what to watch next. IDC expects China's total accelerator shipments to grow 19% this year even as GPU shipments fall 9% [1][7]. And the Ascend 960DT's arrival in the first quarter of 2027, pulled forward from the third, is the next data point on whether Huawei can supply the growth it is being handed [4][5]. ## Takeaway Non-GPU accelerators outsold GPUs in China for the first time in the first half of 2026: Nvidia holds 34% on shipments down 44%, Huawei 28% and rising, and the Ascend 960DT's early-2027 arrival is the next test. ## Sources 1. [Reuters (via MSN), "Nvidia's China AI-chip share falls as Huawei closes gap, report finds", 13 October 2026](https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/technology/nvidia-s-china-ai-chip-share-falls-as-huawei-closes-gap-report-finds/ar-AA2e6MYO) 2. [The Economic Times, "Nvidia's share of China AI chip market falls to 34% as Huawei gains ground", 13 October 2026](https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/us-stocks/news/nvidias-share-of-china-ai-chip-market-falls-to-34-as-huawei-gains-ground/articleshow/134911589.cms) 3. [CXO Digital Pulse, "Nvidia's China AI-Chip Share Drops to 34% as Huawei Narrows the Gap", 13 October 2026](https://www.cxodigitalpulse.com/nvidias-china-ai-chip-share-drops-to-34-as-huawei-narrows-the-gap/) 4. [TechCrunch, "Huawei plans Q1 2027 launch of new AI chip as it takes on Nvidia", 17 September 2026](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/17/huawei-plans-q1-2027-launch-of-new-ai-chip-as-it-takes-on-nvidia/) 5. [TechRepublic, "Huawei Moves Its Next AI Chip Forward as China Builds Around Nvidia Restrictions", 18 September 2026](https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-huawei-ascend-960dt-ai-chip-2027-china-apac/) 6. [Digital Trends, "Huawei just laid out its 2027 AI chip plans, and Nvidia is clearly the target", 16 September 2026](https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/huawei-just-laid-out-its-2027-ai-chip-plans-and-nvidia-is-clearly-the-target/) 7. [International Business Times, "Nvidia's China AI Chip Share Falls as Huawei Narrows the Gap", 13 October 2026](https://cn.ibtimes.com/nvidia-huawei-china-ai-chip-market-2026-1812505) --- Nvidia falls to 34% of China's AI chip market as Huawei takes 28% — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/nvidia-falls-to-34-of-china-s-ai-chip-market-as-huawei-takes-28