Huawei Seeks Middle East, Southeast Asia AI Chip Sales Amid Nvidia Dominance

Huawei Technologies is actively pursuing deals to sell its Ascend 910B AI chips to customers in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand. The company has initiated discussions with potential clients in these regions, aiming to establish a presence in the Middle East and Southeast Asia markets. However, no deals have been finalized as of yet. In the United Arab Emirates, there has been a lack of interest from potential buyers, while the status of negotiations in Thailand remains unclear. This move by Huawei comes as the company seeks to diversify its customer base and reduce its reliance on the domestic market, particularly in the face of ongoing geopolitical tensions and supply chain disruptions. The Ascend 910B chip is an older-generation AI processor, and Huawei's efforts to export it to these regions could be seen as a strategic move to leverage its existing technology while exploring new opportunities for growth. The company's push into these markets is part of a broader effort to establish a foothold in the global AI chip market, which is expected to grow significantly in the coming years.

Huawei has reportedly offered its Ascend 910B processors to prospective clients in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand, aiming to sell several thousand units across the region. Exact distribution figures per country have not yet been disclosed. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand rely heavily on Nvidia’s processors. Just recently, the two Middle East countries agreed to multi-year purchases for more than a million chips from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Part of the agreed-upon chips to the UAE will go to the AI firm G42 while the rest go to US companies building data centres in the country. In Saudi Arabia, Nvidia and AMD agreed to supply to AI company Humain for its data centre project. Humain is still in the early phases of building its “AI factories”, though it targets using several hundred thousand Nvidia processors in the next five years. The plan’s first phase involves using 18,000 of Nvidia’s GB300 Grace Blackwell processors alongside the InfiniBand network system. Thailand’s local AI startups depend on Nvidia’s GPUs to train and test models. Though Trump’s plans to restrict chip shipments, if implemented, may force the country to seek alternative manufacturers, including those from China.

Huawei is already trying to sway customers in the three nations with remote access to CloudMatrix 384. The CloudMatrix 384 system uses advanced Ascend 910C chips, but supply shortages mean the company is not ready to export them. The tech firm is, however, selling its 910C processors to Chinese companies that cannot get advanced American chips. Huawei has yet to finalize deals with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand customers. So far, Huawei has not secured contracts with the countries it approached. However, its offers have drawn the attention of US policymakers determined to maintain the nation’s global dominance of AI chips. The Ascend chips are still far less advanced than Nvidia’s offerings, at least by a generation. Institutions like the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence in the UAE have not expressed interest in Huawei’s offers, though Thailand’s stance on them is still uncertain. Recently, Huawei also proposed a sale of about 3,000 Ascend chips to Malaysia, but it’s still unclear where that deal currently stands. However, Saudi Arabia appears receptive to potential acquisitions. Nonetheless, when asked about their discussions with Huawei, the Saudi Data & AI Authority, SDAIA spokesperson commented: “At this stage, we’re not in a position to provide a comment as the matter is outside our current scope.”