Chinese technology giants are rushing to place orders for Huawei’s Ascend 950 artificial intelligence processors after the launch of DeepSeek’s V4 AI model, which operates on the domestic chipmaker’s hardware, according to three industry sources familiar with the situation.
Major internet companies including ByteDance, Tencent, and Alibaba have contacted Huawei regarding new processor orders, the sources revealed. These individuals have direct knowledge of the purchasing negotiations currently taking place.
Businesses focused on cloud computing services and graphics processing unit rental operations are also hurrying to submit orders, two additional sources confirmed, though they declined to identify specific companies involved.
The 950PR processor delivers substantially better performance than Nvidia’s H20 chip, which was the most powerful semiconductor Nvidia could legally export to China before Beijing banned its importation last year. However, it remains less capable than Nvidia’s H200, a more sophisticated processor currently stuck in regulatory uncertainty.
Although both U.S. and Chinese officials have approved H200 exports, no shipments have reached China as Beijing and Washington continue disagreeing over sale conditions, creating market space for Huawei’s semiconductor business.
This represents a significant milestone for Huawei following years of difficulty securing substantial orders from China’s technology industry. Earlier chip testing went smoothly this year, with companies like ByteDance and Alibaba planning purchases after receiving samples in January, Reuters previously reported in March.
Huawei, ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent did not provide responses to requests for comment.
The intense competition for Huawei’s processors demonstrates how DeepSeek’s V4 release last week has dramatically increased demand for Chinese-made AI hardware while U.S. export controls continue blocking access to Nvidia’s most advanced chips. This also validates the effectiveness of Huawei’s processors thus far.
DeepSeek’s choice to customize its V4 specifically for Huawei’s hardware signals a strategic move away from American semiconductor reliance toward China’s domestically produced AI equipment, which Beijing considers essential for achieving technological leadership.
Last week, Huawei announced its Ascend supernode infrastructure, powered by Ascend 950 series processors, would completely support DeepSeek V4 models and that the entire Ascend SuperNode product lineup had been modified for V4 inference, the process of using trained AI models to respond to questions and perform tasks.
Among Chinese semiconductor manufacturers, Huawei’s Ascend 950 series, particularly the 950PR model, stands as the only domestic processor supporting technology that handles AI calculations in compressed numerical formats, enabling more computations per second at reduced costs.
Demonstrating the urgent demand, Alibaba Cloud’s Bailian platform offered DeepSeek V4 access immediately upon release, providing both V4-Pro and V4-Flash options at prices matching DeepSeek’s official rates.
Tencent Cloud introduced V4 preview services through its TokenHub platform the same day, implementing the model on domestic servers and its Singapore international gateway for worldwide users.
The quick implementation by major cloud services means millions of users and developers can now utilize V4, dramatically increasing AI query volumes requiring processing and consequently boosting demand for underlying processors.
DeepSeek, which is providing developers a 75% discount on its new model through May 5, indicated V4-Pro pricing could drop significantly in late 2026 once Huawei’s Ascend 950 supernodes “ship at scale.”
Nevertheless, the company recognized that limitations would continue until production increases, reflecting the restricted supply of high-performance domestically manufactured AI chips.
DeepSeek’s V4 offers two variants: V4-Pro containing 1.6 trillion total parameters and V4-Flash with 284 billion parameters, both supporting one-million-token context windows. The models are distributed as open-source releases under the MIT open-source license, permitting companies to freely use, modify, and commercialize the technology.
However, 950 production is anticipated to fall below demand because of U.S. export restrictions on advanced manufacturing equipment that prevent China from obtaining state-of-the-art production tools.
Huawei intended to deliver approximately 750,000 units of the 950PR this year, with mass production launching in April and full-scale deliveries beginning in the second half of 2026, according to individuals familiar with the plans.
