Huawei announced its Ascend supernode, powered by Ascend 950 AI chips, fully supports the new V4 artificial intelligence model from Chinese startup DeepSeek. The announcement coincides with DeepSeek’s preview launch of the V4 model to establish a domestic Chinese AI infrastructure.
DeepSeek optimized the V4 model specifically for Huawei hardware to reduce reliance on U.S. technology from companies like Nvidia. Major Chinese tech firms including Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent have already placed large orders for Huawei chips in anticipation of the model's release.
This partnership aims to challenge Nvidia’s CUDA software ecosystem by utilizing Huawei’s CANN framework. The move underscores China’s broader strategy to achieve technological self-sufficiency.