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A senior executive at Chinese technology giant Huawei dismissed concerns on Thursday that a shortage of the most advanced artificial intelligence chips will hinder China's ambitions to become a leader in AI. Zhang Ping, CEO of Huawei Cloud, emphasized the need for innovation to address the issue.
Zhang's comments came during the World AI Conference in Shanghai, a three-day event that began on Thursday. His remarks were made against the backdrop of tighter U.S. restrictions on advanced AI chip shipments to China, including a ban on sales by U.S. companies like Nvidia.
“Nobody will deny that we are facing limited computing power in China,” Zhang acknowledged. “But we cannot rely solely on having the AI chips with the advanced manufacturing process nodes as the ultimate foundation for AI infrastructure.” "If we believe that not having the most advanced AI chips means we will be unable to lead in AI, then we need to abandon this viewpoint", Zhang asserted.
Huawei, which has been placed on the U.S. Entity List and barred from purchasing advanced chips from U.S. companies, has developed its own AI chip product called Ascend. This chip is now used by many companies in China to train AI models. However, the Ascend AI chip, like many others from Chinese companies, is considered significantly inferior in computing power compared to offerings from Nvidia.
Zhang called for innovative approaches that place more focus on the cloud, suggesting that this can help to compensate for the lack of advanced AI chips through innovations in computing architecture. He also advocated for a converged approach that combines cloud, edge, and networks to reduce energy consumption and improve overall efficiency.
“Huawei Cloud is among the leaders in providing such innovative solutions,” Zhang touted, emphasizing the company's commitment to overcoming the current limitations through technological ingenuity.
