China's 'little NVIDIA' launches AI chips to rival US giants
What's the story
Chinese chip designer Moore Threads Technology has launched a new range of products, including advanced chip architecture and artificial intelligence (AI) chips. The Beijing-based company, often dubbed as China's "little NVIDIA," hopes to take on US chip-making giants like NVIDIA and AMD. The firm unveiled two upcoming processors, Huashan and Lushan, named after famous Chinese mountains at a developer conference in Beijing.
Performance comparison
Huashan chip outperforms NVIDIA's Hopper series
The Huashan chip, which is designed for AI training and inference, outperforms NVIDIA's Hopper series in terms of computing power, memory bandwidth, as well as capacity. The claim was made by James Zhang Jianzhong, the founder and CEO of Moore Threads.
Market impact
Moore Threads's IPO and stock performance
The launch of these new chips comes after Moore Threads's successful initial public offering (IPO) on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on December 5. Since its debut, the company's shares have skyrocketed over 480%, closing at CNY 664.1 on Friday. This stellar performance highlights investor confidence in Moore Threads's potential to compete with established players like NVIDIA and AMD in the AI chip market.
Trade tensions
US-China chip trade dynamics
The sale of NVIDIA's H100 and H200 chips, which are widely used by global tech companies for AI training, was banned by the US government over national security concerns. However, in a surprising move, Washington recently approved the sale of H200 chips to China to balance export control with economic interests and national security concerns. Despite such a development, Beijing has yet to approve its domestic sale.