This company is China’s great hope to definitely dispense with Nvidia chips

In China there are dozens of companies that are dedicated to the design of GPU for applications of artificial intelligence (AI). Stepfun, which belongs to Tencent Holdings; Infinigence ai; Siliconflow, from Huawei; Metax; Biren Technology; Focus me; Iluvatar Corex or Moore Threads They are some of the most important. However, currently One shines more than the others. In fact, as we have anticipated from the head of this article, this company is the best China asset when dispensing with the Nvidia chips.

Although it is not as well known as Huawei or Moore Threads, Cambricon Technologies is one of the companies specialized in the design of GPU for AI with greater growth potential. In fact, he has received the approval of the Shanghai bag (China) to raise 560 million dollars. Will allocate them to the design of four chips for training and inference of AI models, and also to the development of an alternative to CUDAfrom Nvidia.

To this company everything seems to be going well. And is that during the last twelve months The value of its actions has tripled. The strategic role of AI for China in its technological and commercial war with the US supports Chinese companies dedicated to the hardware design for AI and the development of large language models. However, there is more than promises to boost the business not only of Cambricon Technologies, but also that of the other Chinese companies that design integrated circuits for AI: the Chinese government has decided to force the data centers that belong to the State throughout the country To use at least 50% of Chinese integrated circuits on their servers.

Cambricon Technologies is not an emerging company like the others

China needs talent to compete with the US on equal terms and knows where you should look for it: in its population. In fact, the Administration has encouraged the implementation of elite educational centers that receive the best students in the country with open arms. The Chen brothers were two of them. Today are the founders and maximums responsible for Cambricon Technologies. The first, Chen Tianshi, exercises as president and general director of this company specialized in chip design for AI applications.

And the second, Chen Yunji, is an expert in the development of processors for neural networks that, as far as we know, exercises as an advisor and responsible for technology in Cambricon. Both formed in An elite program for young talents In the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and currently the two are researchers and professors in this educational institution. Your best asset is its complementarity. Tianshi is an expert in chips design, and Yunji in AI.

Together they created a project at the Chinese Academy of Sciences that pursued a processor specialized in deep learning. Their plan went well and that chip allowed them to found their company. Their curriculum supports them, and there is no doubt that their effort has helped them reach the position in which they are. In fact, both obtained their doctorates in computer science at age 24. However, Cambricon is not a traditional emerging company. The growth of which we have spoken a few lines above and the expectations it has raised have been led by the support of the Chinese government, which sees in this company the opportunity to achieve the technological self -sufficiency it needs.

During the last three years Huawei has established himself as one of the main Chinese GPU designers for AI, but Cambricon has something that this giant does not count at the moment: he combines a very ambitious hardware and A constant software platform improves. Huawei Ascend family chips are very competitive, and also has Cann (Compute Architecture for Neural Networks), what is Your alternative to Cudabut Cambricon is demonstrating that he has the ability to adapt its Neuware software very quickly to the needs of its customers. And in a market in which CUDA governs with iron fist It is a very important asset.

Currently the flagship products that have changed to compete with Nvidia and Huawei in the Chinese market are the MLU series (Machine Learning Unit) and yes. In fact, the expectations of the Chinese semiconductor industry defend that the GPU Siyuan 690 will have comparable performance to the chip NVIDIA H100.

In addition, Cambricon guarantees that their products are compatible with the models of the leaders in China, such as Deepseek, Qwen de Alibaba or Hunyuan de Tencent, among others, which has allowed it Gain the confidence of the Chinese industry. If we add that, According to Financial Timesfor developers it is easier to use neuware that Cann is reasonable to anticipate that during the next months Cambricon will monopolize the attention of the technology industry.

Image | Cambricon Technologies

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