Huawei announces new AI infrastructure as Nvidia gets locked out of China

Huawei announces new AI infrastructure as Nvidia gets locked out of China

Huawei announces new AI infrastructure as Nvidia gets locked out of China

Huawei
SHANGHAI, CHINA – JUNE 29, 2020 – Huawei’s largest flagship store in the world, Shanghai, China, June 29, 2020.- PHOTOGRAPH BY Costfoto / Barcroft Studios / Future Publishing (Photo credit should read Costfoto/Barcroft Media via Getty Images) | Image Credits:Barcroft Media / Getty Images

Tech giant Huawei unveiled new AI infrastructure meant to help boost compute power and allow the company to better compete with rival chipmaker Nvidia.

At a keynote at its Huawei Connect conference on Thursday, Shenzhen, China-based Huawei announced new SuperPoD Interconnect technology that can link up to 15,000 graphics cards, including Huawei’s Ascend AI chips, together to increase compute power.

This tech seems to be a competitor for Nvidia’s NVLink infrastructure, which facilitates high-speed communication between AI chips.

Technology like this is critical for Huawei to better compete with semiconductors like Nvidia’s. While Huawei’s AI chips are less powerful than Nvidia’s, being able to cluster them together will give its users access to more compute power, which is needed for training and scaling AI systems.

This news also comes just a day after China banned domestic tech companies from buying Nvidia’s hardware, including Nvidia’s RTX Pro 600D servers specifically designed for the market in China.

TechCrunch reached out to Huawei for more information.