DeepSeek Orders 160,000 Huawei AI Processors for New Ulanqab Data Center

AI-summarized · Neutrality-checked

DeepSeek initiated the construction of a gigawatt-scale data center in Ulanqab, China, and placed an order for 160,000 of Huawei’s new Ascend 950DT AI processors. Despite Huawei’s marketing of the 950DT as a training-capable chip, DeepSeek relegated the hardware to inference tasks following previous failures to train models on older Huawei processors. This order represented the largest known cluster of domestic AI silicon, though DeepSeek remained dependent on Nvidia hardware for its primary model training.

Consequences

Huawei will face significant production bottlenecks due to shortages of top-tier memory, likely delaying the fulfillment of the DeepSeek contract for over a year. While this shift secures Huawei’s dominance in the revenue-generating inference market, the reliance on self-developed memory and ongoing manufacturing constraints limits its capacity to challenge Nvidia’s hold on the frontier training sector.

Sources

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