The US and China have been at loggerheads on a variety of issues, and the chip war or embargo, whichever way you look at it is no different. It is at the root of trying to create a debilitating impact on the Chinese AI industry. The US has banned the export of advanced AI and supercomputing chips, such as Nvidia’s H100 and A100 GPU and semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China. It does not end here. The purpose needs to be achieved in the most comprehensive manner.
The export of essential chipmaking tools and software like EDA software from Synopsys, Cadence and Siemens are also restricted not just from the US but now from allied nations as well. Dozens of Chinese tech companies have been blacklisted, prohibiting them from purchasing US-made chips or tools. Firms like Huawei and SMIC, China’s leading chipmaker are the prominent targets. It does not end here, US citizens and green card holders are barred from providing certain technical support to advanced chip development in China.
When challenges are thrown, takers are also there, not everyone takes it lying down. DeepSeek R1/V3 and few others have already proven their capabilities and have made the US AI pioneers that they are in the race in a very serious way. They have also made it amply clear that they can outbeat the chip / tech / human expertise embargo. Beyond DeepSeek now we have Z.ai which has quickly become one of the top AI companies being recognised for creating highly efficient, advanced AI models like GLM-4.5 and GLM-4.5-Air. It beats the now iconic DeepSeek on a variety of parameters.
Beyond the LLMs, China is taking the battle straightaway into the AI chips war zone. Huawei has always been a serious contender to landmark technological breakthroughs. The recent World Artificial Intelligence Conference, WAIC, in Shanghai displayed it all. Huawei’s CloudMatrix 384 is emerging as a strong contender to Nvidia’s GB200NVL72. The company did not allow US restrictions to become a dampener. Today, it stands tall as a key Chinese chip supplier. Surprisingly, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has acknowledged Huawei’s success and has also warned about the impact of US curbs. He basically suggested that Huawei could dominate, if restrictions persisted.
THE CHIP ENABLED AI WAR IS RAGING WITH US AND CHINESE BATTLELINES DRAWN.
Sanjay Sahay
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