Source: Financial Times
Huawei is projecting $12B in AI chip sales by 2026—a 60% jump from $7.5B in 2025—driven by surging demand for its Ascend 950PR processor. U.S. export controls have eliminated foreign competition in the Chinese market, allowing Huawei and other Beijing-aligned companies to capture the entire Chinese cloud and enterprise segment. The result is a bifurcated AI chip market: separate ecosystems rather than a global one. China's AI infrastructure is decoupling from Western supply chains in real time, which reduces future leverage for U.S. sanctions and accelerates domestic semiconductor development.