Huawei's Ascend 910C AI chip has reportedly reached a 40% manufacturing yield, marking the first time the Ascend production line has turned profitable. The company aims to improve the yield to 60%, bringing it closer to industry standards.
Yield improvement and profitability milestone
The Financial Times, citing industry sources, reports that Huawei's Ascend 910C, manufactured using the SMIC 7nm (N+2) process, has improved its yield rate to nearly 40%, making the Ascend production line profitable for the first time.
Production targets for 2025
Huawei plans to produce 100,000 Ascend 910C chips and 300,000 Ascend 910B chips in 2025—up from zero and 200,000 units in 2024, respectively. The company now accounts for over 75% of China's total AI chip production, highlighting its growing presence in the domestic semiconductor market.
Yield gains and sector benchmark
In September 2024, reports from Reuters, Yahoo Finance, and TrendForce revealed that Ascend 910C's yield was only 20%, while the older Ascend 910B reached 50%. Since then, Huawei has doubled the 910C's yield, aiming for 60% to match industry norms.
Performance comparison with Nvidia
According to ICSmart and Tom's Hardware, Huawei's Ascend 910C delivers 60% of the inference performance of Nvidia's H100 GPU. While it still trails Nvidia's next-generation Blackwell AI chips, its advancement signals China's push to reduce reliance on Nvidia's hardware.
Shift to domestic foundry amid US sanctions
Due to US trade restrictions, TSMC halted production of Huawei's AI chips in 2020. Huawei has since shifted manufacturing to SMIC, ensuring continued chip production despite sanctions.
Analysts view Huawei's progress with the Ascend 910C as a key milestone in China's push for semiconductor self-sufficiency, reducing its dependence on Western chipmakers.
Article edited by Jack Wu
