DIGITIMES observes that, driven by China's policy direction, robust cloud data center expansion, and an unstable supply of high-end US cloud AI accelerators, China's AI computing market is rapidly localizing.
DIGITIMES estimates that Chinese vendors will ship 2.123 million high-end cloud AI accelerators in 2026, representing a 136% year-on-year increase. Huawei, leveraging its system integration advantages, is expected to capture more than 50% of the domestic market, far ahead of competitors such as Cambricon, Alibaba's T-Head Semiconductor, Baidu's Kunlunxin, and Hygon Information Technology.
However, Chinese vendors' global market share is projected to reach only about 13%, constrained by low yields on advanced process nodes in the local market, an unstable supply of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and the dominance of Nvidia's CUDA ecosystem.
Chart 1: Chinese high-end cloud AI accelerator shipments, 2024-2026 (k units)
Supply side: US AI curbs accelerate China's local alternatives
Chart 2: Details on three major camps of Chinese high-end computing industry
Chart 3: Shipments and share for China high-end AI accelerator players, 2026 (k units)
Chart 4: Challenges from advanced processes, HBM, and grey market
Advanced node: SMIC boosts AI supply despite yield and cost limits
