Nvidia's China AI-chip share falls as Huawei closes gap, report finds

BEIJING: Nvidia’s share of China’s market for data-centre AI chips fell to 34% in the first half of 2026, as US export controls restricted supplies of its products and domestic rivals led by Huawei gained ground, according to an IDC report seen by ​Reuters.

Nvidia shipped 678,000 AI accelerators in China from January through June, down 44% from a year earlier, ​IDC data showed. AI accelerators are specialised chips used to train and run AI ⁠models.

Washington has restricted China’s access to Nvidia’s most powerful AI chips, limiting the range of products the US ​chipmaker can sell in the world’s second-largest economy. Beijing, meanwhile, has promoted domestic alternatives and required Chinese companies to ​seek approval to import compliant Nvidia chips.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has repeatedly criticised Washington’s export curbs, saying the policy forced a US company to cede China’s $50 billion AI chip market to Huawei.

IDC did not specify which Nvidia products made up its 34% ​market share, or whether the figure included cutting-edge chips such as the B200 and B300, which are barred ​from export to China but have been smuggled into the country.

Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment.

Huawei shipped 572,000 ‌AI ⁠accelerators, up from more than 300,000 a year earlier, giving it a 28% share of the overall market, IDC said.

Alibaba’s chip-design unit T-Head held 7%, followed by Cambricon with 5%, Baidu’s Kunlunxin with 4% and Hygon with 3%. Nine of the 11 Chinese chipmakers tracked by IDC increased shipments from a year earlier.

Total AI-accelerator shipments reached 2.008 ​million units in the first ​half. Shipments of graphics ⁠processing units, or GPUs — the chips most widely used to train AI models — fell 26% to 991,000 units, as supplies eligible for sale in mainland China remained ​limited, IDC said.

Shipments of other AI accelerators rose nearly 80% to 1.016 million units, ​overtaking GPUs ⁠by volume. This category includes chips designed for specific AI tasks, such as running trained models.

Huawei, T-Head, Kunlunxin and Cambricon together accounted for 95% of the non-GPU segment, which IDC said was being adopted by government agencies, internet companies ⁠and ​telecoms providers.

IDC said competition was shifting from the performance of a ​single chip to system-level capabilities, including how well chips work in a larger computing cluster.

IDC expects total accelerator shipments in China to grow ​19% this year, even as GPU shipments fall 9%.