Huawei CEO Accuses U.S. Over Overstating Its Chipmaking Capabilities

In an interview with China’s state-run People’s Daily, Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, downplayed his company’s chip technology and accused the US of overstating its capabilities as trade talks between Washington and Beijing continue, according to FT.

Ren said Huawei’s Ascend chip, China’s main alternative to Nvidia, “still lags behind the US by one generation” and added: “The US has exaggerated Huawei’s capabilities — we’re not that strong yet.”

His comments follow Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s recent concerns about Huawei’s advances in AI chips, claiming that US export restrictions have fueled a “formidable” competitor challenging America’s AI leadership.

FT writes that trade discussions between the US and China began Monday in London, with export controls on key tech now on the table. During the first round in Geneva, these controls weren’t discussed, but Beijing’s export curbs on rare earths essential for car manufacturing have since drawn attention.

Huawei has benefited from the US ban on Nvidia chip shipments, as Chinese tech giants now buy more Ascend chips. However, most Chinese AI firms, including DeepSeek, still prefer Nvidia chips for training large language models.

Analysts and Huawei engineers have previously noted technical challenges with Ascend chips, especially in distributing workloads for AI training. On Tuesday, Ren suggested Huawei was improving, saying cluster computing could help offset performance issues: “Using clustering and stacking, our computing results are comparable to the world’s best,” he said.

Huawei’s new CloudMatrix 384 AI server aims to rival Nvidia by linking 384 AI processors with Huawei’s optical tech. Some customers are already testing the server, though challenges remain with heat and weight, said a source involved in testing. One key challenge is building “an ecosystem” of developers, since Nvidia’s Cuda software is widely preferred.

Ren said Huawei spends Rmb180bn ($25bn) annually on R&D, with Rmb60bn on basic research. He noted China’s strengths in infrastructure: “AI depends on abundant electricity and advanced network infrastructure,” he said. “China’s power generation and grid systems are world-class. Our telecoms infrastructure is the most advanced in the world.”