Huawei pulls Ascend 960 AI chips forward by up to 9 months to challenge Nvidia
MirelaXhota · x · 2026-09-21
At Huawei Connect 2026, deputy chairman David Wang said Huawei is accelerating its Ascend roadmap: the Ascend 960DT ships in Q1 2027 (three quarters early) and the 960R in Q3 2027 (three months early). Since single-chip performance trails Nvidia, Huawei is betting on connectivity and clustering — SuperPoDs of up to 4,096 optically interconnected NPUs assembled into SuperClusters of up to 512,000 NPUs. The push unfolds under US trade sanctions, with suggestions Huawei has downplayed single-chip specs to skirt restrictions.
Related event: Huawei Unveils Ascend 960 Supernode: 4,096 Cards, 8 EFLOPS(5 posts)→
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