Huawei is executing a full sovereignty play — the most ambitious vertical integration strategy in the Chinese AI ecosystem. The goal: complete independence from foreign technology across the entire AI stack.
The Ascend 910C commands 35-40% domestic AI chip market share, projected to reach 50% by 2026. Production is scaling from 800K to 2M dies per year. Models across the Chinese AI ecosystem are increasingly optimized for domestic silicon from the start.
This isn’t import substitution — it’s a strategic control loop. By controlling the chip layer, Huawei influences every layer above it: which models run efficiently, which cloud services perform best, which devices can serve AI locally.
The Full-Stack Architecture
Huawei’s strategy spans the entire technology stack:
Chips (L1): Ascend 910C for training and inference
Cloud (L3): CloudMatrix infrastructure at 13% market share
Models (L4): Pangu foundation models optimized for Ascend
Devices: Consumer devices with on-device AI capabilities
The strategy is chips → cloud → models → devices — complete vertical integration under domestic control.
The Broader Domestic Chip Ecosystem
Huawei isn’t alone in the domestic chip push:
Cambricon: MLU 590 for training and inference workloads
Moore Threads: MTT S4000 GPUs (stock up 425% reflecting market confidence)
Biren Tech: BR100/BR104 data center GPUs
Enflame: CloudBlazer for AI training
Infrastructure Sovereignty as Strategy
The sovereignty play gains urgency from ongoing export controls. Tighter controls accelerate domestic innovation under constraint. Models optimized for Ascend from the start create ecosystem lock-in that benefits Huawei regardless of geopolitical outcomes.
If Huawei achieves 50%+ chip share and closes the chips → cloud → models → devices loop at scale, it represents the most fundamental restructuring of China’s AI foundations — shifting competitive advantage from the model layer to the hardware layer.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
