SEOUL, December 26 (AJP) - Huawei Technologies is preparing to launch new artificial intelligence chips in South Korea next year, targeting a domestic market that is heavily reliant on American technology led by Nvidia.
The Chinese telecommunications group announced the plan at a media event in Seoul on Friday, marking a renewed push into the country after U.S. sanctions forced it to scale back local operations.
Speaking at the "Huawei Day 2025" conference at The Plaza Hotel, Huawei Korea CEO Balian Wang confirmed the company would introduce its processors and data center solutions in 2026.
"We plan to launch AI chips and solutions in South Korea next year to provide companies with a choice beyond Nvidia," Wang said. "We are already in discussions with potential customers."
The initiative targets the near-monopoly of Nvidia, whose graphics processing units (GPUs) are the standard for AI development but face chronic supply shortages. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has previously identified Huawei as a primary competitor capable of filling gaps left by U.S. export controls.
Huawei's offering centers on its Ascend 910 series. The chips are produced entirely within a Chinese supply chain to circumvent U.S. trade restrictions. They are designed by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon, manufactured by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), and utilize memory from ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT). The company switched to CXMT after U.S. regulations blocked its access to South Korean high-bandwidth memory (HBM).
To compete with Nvidia's established hardware ecosystem, Huawei is pitching an integrated infrastructure strategy. Wang highlighted the company's strength in networking equipment, which allows it to cluster chips effectively to boost overall data center speeds, compensating for any raw performance gap with Nvidia's top-tier GPUs.
Industry analysts suggest Huawei will likely focus on South Korean startups and academic institutions that have struggled to secure Nvidia hardware due to cost or shortages.
Regarding the distribution model, Wang said the company has not yet decided whether to work with local partners or supply the market independently. He also clarified that the 2026 rollout would be part of a simultaneous global launch.
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