Chinese tech giant Huawei has unveiled new AI infrastructure designed to boost compute power. The announcement positions the company to better compete with rival chipmaker Nvidia.
At a keynote for its Huawei Connect conference on Thursday, the Shenzhen-based company announced its new SuperPoD Interconnect technology. This system can link up to 15,000 graphics cards, including Huawei’s own Ascend AI chips, to significantly increase compute power.
The new technology appears to be a direct competitor to Nvidia’s NVLink infrastructure, which facilitates high-speed communication between AI chips. This type of technology is critical for Huawei as it seeks to compete with leading semiconductors like those from Nvidia.
While Huawei’s individual AI chips are less powerful than Nvidia’s, the ability to cluster them together will give its users access to greater compute power. This increased capacity is essential for training and scaling complex AI systems.
This news arrives just one day after China banned domestic tech companies from purchasing Nvidia’s hardware. The ban includes Nvidia’s RTX Pro 600D servers, which were specifically designed for the market in China. TechCrunch has reached out to Huawei for more information.