Huawei’s AI Chips Get 60% More Expensive as Demand Soars

Huawei Technologies Co. is putting a higher price on one of its most advanced AI chips, a move that shows just how intense the race for computing power has become. The company has told some customers that the suggested price of its Ascend 950DT accelerator has climbed by around 60% in just three months, reaching about 250,000 yuan ($37,300) per chip, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The new price puts Huawei’s accelerator roughly on par with Nvidia Corp.’s B200, a benchmark product in the fast-growing AI chip market. Neither company has a single fixed price for every customer. The final cost can depend on the size of an order and on how much additional equipment, such as networking hardware, a buyer purchases alongside the processors.

Still, the sharp increase in Huawei’s pricing sends a clear message: demand for powerful AI hardware is running far ahead of supply. As technology companies build larger data centers and invest heavily in generative AI, advanced processors have become some of the most sought-after pieces of infrastructure in the industry.

The situation is particularly important for Huawei because China is looking for stronger domestic alternatives to Nvidia. Export restrictions have made access to some of Nvidia’s most powerful chips more difficult for Chinese companies, increasing the pressure to build a homegrown AI computing ecosystem. Huawei is now at the center of that effort, and growing demand for its Ascend chips suggests that Chinese customers are increasingly willing to rely on domestic technology.

DeepSeek could become one of Huawei’s biggest customers. The AI company plans to deploy at least 160,000 high-end Huawei accelerators in a large data center project in Inner Mongolia. If the project moves ahead at that scale, it could create one of the largest known clusters of Huawei AI chips anywhere, demonstrating how quickly demand for domestic computing power is growing.

But Huawei’s challenge is not simply about selling more chips. The company also has to make enough of them. Its sales representatives have reportedly told customers that supplies of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, are particularly tight and are pushing production costs higher. HBM is essential to modern AI processors because it allows them to move huge amounts of data quickly. Its growing use in AI systems has contributed to a broader memory shortage that has affected the technology industry.

Huawei is not the only Chinese chipmaker feeling the pressure. Cambricon Technologies Corp. is also reportedly raising prices, with increases of as much as 30% under discussion.

For now, Huawei is giving priority to major Chinese technology companies and AI infrastructure builders as it manages limited supplies of the Ascend 950DT. The company is believed to be capable of producing only hundreds of thousands of units this year.

That gap between demand and production explains much of Huawei’s pricing power. AI computing has quickly shifted from being a technology advantage to a strategic resource. For Huawei, the opportunity is enormous—but so is the pressure. If it can overcome supply constraints while meeting the appetite of China’s biggest AI developers, the Ascend 950DT could become far more than a competing chip. It could become a symbol of China’s determination to build its own AI hardware future.