Jensen Huang on edge: After DeepSeek, Chinese chipmakers may threaten Nvidia's dominance

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is showing signs of concern as a new wave of Chinese chipmakers have speeded up their development, following the debut of DeepSeek’s large language model, another Chinese startup is building a new GPU that could match its performance to Nvidia, as per a report.

A New GPU from China

According to a PC Gamer report, Lisuan Technology, a Chinese startup, has been working to develop the "first self-developed architecture and fully independent intellectual property GPU chip", which would "carry out detailed and comprehensive software and hardware testing and driver optimization work."

Challenging the RTX 4060?

The 6 nm GPU chip, currently titled the "G100", is being built with the aim to match RTX 4060-level performance, which is built on the 5 nm process from TSMC, reported Tom's Hardware. While Lisuan has reportedly been trying to develop the G100 since 2023 and had planned to launch it in 2023, this has led to scepticism if the company can actually reach the RTX 4060 performance level, as per the report.

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According to a PC Gamer report, the G100 will be the first of many steps before it can actually release it into the Chinese market. While, it also needs more optimisation and just plain testing because it is targeting "the needs of desktops, notebooks, graphic workstations and other devices," as per the report.

Rise of Nvidia's Chinese Competitors

Meanwhile, the Nvidia CEO told Bloomberg during an interview that "the Chinese competitors have evolved and Huawei, with its new AI chips, has become quite formidable," as quoted in the report. As the domestic ability to create processes for the G100 is very limited, so it is possible that Huawei's Ascend 920 and Lisuan's G100 use silicon from the same Chinese foundry, which is SMIC, as per estimations from Tom's Hardware, reported PC Gamer.

Huang said, “Like everybody else, they [Chinese companies] are doubling, quadrupling capabilities every year," adding, "all of the world's AI researchers and all of the world's developers to be building on American stacks," quoted PC Gamer.

FAQs

Why is Nvidia’s CEO concerned?
Because Chinese companies are moving fast and could compete directly with Nvidia, even as US export restrictions try to limit that.

Is the G100 available now?
No, it’s still in early testing. It needs more work before it can launch in China’s consumer or business markets.