Trackers / Domestic chip scoreboard
China Domestic AI Chip Scoreboard
Every domestic AI accelerator in production or heading to market: maker, chip, fabrication node, status and the key public numbers, each row traced to a named source.
As of 18 July 2026. Updated from China AI Dispatch's daily reporting. Machine-readable version:domestic-chips.json.
The single most-asked question about Chinese AI is a hardware question: what can China actually build without Nvidia? This page answers it as a scoreboard. It lists the data-center accelerators that matter for the export-control story, with what each part is, where it is fabricated, whether it is shipping, and the load-bearing numbers, each attributed. It is a companion to the export-control tracker, which carries the dated timeline and the policy side.
Two honest caveats sit over the whole table. First, most of these parts are fabricated on the same constrained line, SMIC's advanced "N+2" process, and SMIC does not disclose its node; the figures here are outside estimates, flagged as such. Second, almost every maker below reports its own numbers, so where a figure is a claim or a target rather than an independently verified result, we say so in place. Automotive and edge silicon (BYD's Xuanji, Li Auto's Mach M100, Xpeng's Turing) advances on a separate track and is out of scope.
The scoreboard
Data-center AI accelerators from Chinese makers, sorted from the market leader down. "Node" is where the part is fabricated; SMIC does not publish its node, so those cells carry outside estimates. Each row links to its source below.
| Chip / line | Maker | Type | Node | Status | Key numbers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascend 950PR | Huawei | Training + inference | Not disclosed; SMIC-class domestic process (est.) | Announced Mar 2026; volume ramp targeted 2026 | Claims 2.87x the single-card compute of Nvidia’s China-market H20; first China chip to support 4-bit float (FP4); pairs with Huawei’s own HiBL 1.0 memory (112GB, 1.4 TB/s). ByteDance and Alibaba plan orders; Huawei targets 750,000 units in 2026. About 812,000 Ascend cards shipped in 2025. Source: TrendForce; Reuters; IDC · CAD issue |
| Ascend 950DT | Huawei | Inference | Not disclosed; SMIC-class domestic process (est.) | On the 2026 roadmap (Q4 2026) | 144GB of in-house HiZQ memory at 4 TB/s. A SemiAnalysis teardown finds part of DeepSeek V4’s architecture was co-designed for it. Series codenamed "David"; roadmap runs 960 in 2027, 970 in 2028. Source: SemiAnalysis via InfoQ; Reuters · CAD issue |
| Ascend 910C | Huawei | Training + inference | SMIC advanced line (~7nm-class, DUV, est.) | In volume; deployed in national clusters | Shenzhen’s 10,000-card cluster runs entirely on 910C, rated 11,000 petaflops with ~92% pre-booked. A third-party full-parameter post-training of DeepSeek V4-Pro (1.6T params) ran on ~1,000 910C cards; hardware utilization was 34.9% vs 50 to 55% on Nvidia. Source: SCMP; Leiphone · CAD issue |
| AI accelerators | Cambricon | AI accelerator | SMIC N+2 (~7nm-class, est.) | In production; publicly listed | First pure-play AI chip designer past 1 trillion yuan market cap. Shipped ~116,000 cards in 2025, a 2.9% share of the ~4M China bought, against Nvidia’s 55%. Holds an estimated 9 to 11% of SMIC’s advanced N+2 capacity. Source: IDC; tmtpost · CAD issue |
| T-Head M890 (Zhenwu) | Alibaba (PingTouGe) | AI accelerator | Domestic process; node not disclosed | In production; deployed in-house | 144GB HBM, 128-chip supernode. About 560,000 T-Head chips shipped. Alibaba’s own 10,000-chip data center runs on earlier Zhenwu-line parts. Source: Reuters; CAD reporting |
| MTT S5000 | Moore Threads | General-purpose GPU | Domestic process; node not disclosed | In volume; listed on Shanghai’s STAR Market | Trained a 27B coding model end-to-end on its own cluster; its GPU backend was merged into the mainline SGLang serving framework. Contests SMIC N+2 capacity with Biren and Alibaba’s T-Head. Pre-announced first-half 2026 revenue of 1.65 to 1.75 billion yuan, up 135 to 149% year on year from about 702 million yuan; the company did not disclose how much of its output is on advanced versus mature process nodes. Source: Moore Threads STAR Market pre-announcement via Sina Finance; tmtpost; CAD reporting · CAD issue |
| DCU accelerators | Hygon (海光信息) | AI accelerator (x86-and-accelerator house) | Domestic process; node not disclosed | In volume; publicly listed on Shanghai’s STAR Market | Supplies a large share of China’s domestic AI servers. Pre-announced first-half 2026 revenue of 8.5 to 9.3 billion yuan, up 55.56 to 70.20% year on year, with net profit up 41.5 to 52.3%. The company did not disclose the advanced-versus-mature process-node split behind that output. Source: Hygon STAR Market earnings pre-announcement via Sina Finance · CAD issue |
| Kunlunxin | Baidu | AI accelerator | Domestic process; node not disclosed | In production; being spun off for listing | Being spun off for a Hong Kong listing at a target near 50 billion dollars; Tencent is a customer. Source: CAD reporting |
| CoreX (Tianshu Zhixin) | Iluvatar CoreX | Inference GPU | Domestic process; node not disclosed | In production; scaling with anchor buyer | ByteDance is finalizing a deal for at least 50,000 inference chips, which would make Iluvatar its third domestic GPU supplier behind Huawei and Cambricon. Source: Reuters; SCMP · CAD issue |
| Enflame | Enflame (Tencent-backed) | AI accelerator | Domestic process; node not disclosed | In production; STAR Market IPO cleared | Cleared a STAR Market IPO targeting about 6 billion yuan; Tencent owns roughly 20%. Source: CAD reporting |
| Biren | Biren | General-purpose GPU | SMIC N+2 (~7nm-class, est.) | In volume production | In volume production; a named member of the domestic-AI-infrastructure alliance SenseTime convened at WAIC. Contests SMIC N+2 capacity with Moore Threads and T-Head. Source: tmtpost; CAD reporting · CAD issue |
| MetaX | MetaX | General-purpose GPU | Domestic process; node not disclosed | In production; domestic IPO track | In production and on the domestic IPO track; a named member of the SenseTime-convened domestic-compute alliance alongside Cambricon, Hygon, Moore Threads and Biren. Source: CAD reporting · CAD issue |
| Sugon accelerators | Sugon (CAS-affiliated) | HPC / AI accelerator | Domestic process; node not disclosed | Deployed in a national computing hub | 60,000 units run the Zhengzhou national computing hub with zero chips from Nvidia, AMD or any Western supplier. Source: CCTV · CAD issue |
| DeepSeek inference chip (in development) | DeepSeek | Inference (in-house, unannounced) | Unknown | Reported in development; not shipping | Reported to be designing its own chip aimed at inference, not training, to own the recurring inference bill rather than out-Nvidia Nvidia. Reuters reports it is talking to chip-design firms, foundries and memory suppliers. No specifications disclosed. Source: Reuters (7 Jul 2026); The Information via CAD · CAD issue |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
How to read this
Huawei is the market, for now. By the one figure everyone can check, shipments, Huawei shipped roughly 812,000 Ascend cards in 2025 (IDC), well ahead of every other domestic maker; the next-largest disclosed figure is Alibaba's T-Head at about 560,000, and Cambricon at roughly 116,000. The Ascend 950PR and 950DT extend that lead, and DeepSeek's V4 was partly co-designed for Ascend inference. Everything else on this page is the field trying to close the gap.
The rivals are real but small. Cambricon is the most valuable pure-play designer, past a trillion yuan in market cap, yet shipped only about 116,000 cards in 2025, a 2.9 percent share against Nvidia's 55 percent (IDC). Hygon, Moore Threads, Biren, MetaX, Alibaba's T-Head, Baidu's Kunlunxin, Enflame, Iluvatar CoreX and Sugon are all in production or heading to public markets, and several now anchor real orders (ByteDance's 50,000-chip Iluvatar deal, Alibaba's own T-Head data center). The revenue is starting to show: on 16 July 2026 Moore Threads and Hygon each pre-announced first-half earnings the same day, Moore Threads guiding to 1.65 to 1.75 billion yuan (up 135 to 149 percent) and Hygon to 8.5 to 9.3 billion yuan (up 55 to 70 percent), per their STAR Market filings via Sina Finance. The direction is clear; the volumes are still a fraction of demand, and neither firm disclosed how much of its output comes off advanced versus mature process nodes.
The ceiling is the fab, not the design. Most of these parts compete for capacity on SMIC's single advanced N+2 line, which a tmtpost breakdown estimates can make about 2.6 million AI chips this year against domestic demand near 4.2 million. Huawei has locked about 43 percent of it; Cambricon holds an estimated 9 to 11 percent; Biren, Moore Threads and T-Head contest the rest. That queue, not any one chip's spec sheet, is the scarce resource. For the policy timeline behind this, see the export-control tracker.
New chips land in the daily first
This scoreboard is updated from the newsletter, so the daily is always ahead of the page. When a new domestic accelerator ships or a hyperscaler places an order, that is where it breaks first.
Common questions
Which companies make AI chips in China?
Huawei leads with its Ascend line. Behind it sits a widening field: Cambricon, Hygon, Moore Threads, Alibaba's T-Head (PingTouGe), Baidu's Kunlunxin, Biren, MetaX, Enflame, Iluvatar CoreX and Sugon. DeepSeek is reported to be developing an in-house inference chip. Huawei shipped roughly 812,000 Ascend cards in 2025 (IDC); the rest are far smaller by volume.
What is the best Chinese AI chip?
By deployment and shipments, Huawei's Ascend line is the clear leader. The Ascend 950PR claims 2.87 times the single-card compute of Nvidia's China-market H20 and is the only China chip supporting 4-bit float (FP4). The 950DT adds 144GB of in-house HiZQ memory for inference. Cambricon is the most valuable pure-play designer but shipped about a 2.9 percent share of cards in 2025.
What process node are Chinese AI chips made on?
Most leading-edge domestic AI chips are fabricated on SMIC's advanced 'N+2' line. SMIC does not disclose the node; independent teardowns (TechInsights) describe it as roughly 7nm-class, produced on older DUV lithography rather than the EUV tools SMIC is barred from importing. Treat any specific nanometer figure as an outside estimate, not a maker disclosure. Analysts place SMIC around three generations behind TSMC at the frontier.
Is DeepSeek building its own chip?
It is reported to be. According to The Information, DeepSeek is developing an in-house chip aimed at inference rather than training, to own the recurring inference bill rather than compete head-on with Nvidia at the training frontier. No specifications have been disclosed, and the chip is not yet shipping.
Can China meet its own AI chip demand?
Not yet at the leading edge. A tmtpost breakdown estimates SMIC’s advanced N+2 line can make about 2.6 million AI chips this year against domestic demand near 4.2 million, roughly a 40 percent gap, with Huawei holding about 43 percent of that capacity. Those volume figures are analyst estimates, not SMIC disclosures. The gap is why allocation of fab capacity, not chip design, is the scarce resource.
Sources and method
Every number in the scoreboard traces to a named source carried in China AI Dispatch's reporting: IDC and TrendForce for shipments and specs, Reuters and SCMP for orders, SemiAnalysis and Leiphone for teardowns and training runs, tmtpost for the fab-capacity breakdown, CCTV and company disclosures for deployments. Where a row links to a CAD issue, that issue cites the underlying primary source.
Two classes of figure are deliberately hedged. Process nodes are outside estimates: SMIC does not disclose the node of its advanced N+2 line, which TechInsights teardowns place at roughly 7nm-class on DUV lithography, so node cells read as estimates rather than hard nanometer numbers. Vendor performance claims (single-card compute multiples, memory bandwidth) are labeled as claims until independently verified. Shipment and capacity splits, such as the 2.9 percent Cambricon card share and the 2.6-million-versus-4.2-million fab gap, are analyst estimates, not company disclosures, and are marked so.
This is a living document, updated from the daily newsletter, which always carries the newest entries first.
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China AI Dispatch is a daily, English-language briefing on Chinese AI, built from Chinese-language sources most of the English press does not read. If this scoreboard was useful, the daily is where it comes from.
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