Chinese chipmaker Cambricon Technologies plans to triple AI chip production in 2026, aiming to capture market share from Huawei Technologies and fill the gap left by Nvidia’s (NVDA) forced exit from China, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Founded in 2016, Cambricon offers a series of intelligent chip products and platform-based basic system software. The Beijing-based company is preparing to deliver half a million artificial intelligence accelerators in 2026, the people said, including up to 300,000 units of its most advanced Siyuan 590 and 690 chips, built mainly on SMIC’s (OTCQX:SIUIF) 7nm “N+2” production process.
The expansion reflects China’s push to replace U.S. technology, with Huawei also doubling output over the next year and Moore Threads entering the market. Earlier this year, China’s regulators reportedly summoned local chipmakers to report how their products compare against Nvidia’s China chips and concluded that China’s AI processors have reached a level equal to or exceeding that of the Nvidia chips allowed under export controls.
Nvidia’s (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang in November acknowledged the company is effectively shut out of China, opening space for domestic rivals.
Cambricon’s success, however, will hinge on securing SMIC capacity at a time other rivals are also vying to place orders with China’s most advanced chipmaker. For context, the company will build just 142,000 AI chips in 2025, per Goldman Sachs.
SMIC’s own technology may prove an obstacle. Yields for Cambricon’s top-of-the-line 590 and 690 chips are currently only about 20%, the people said, meaning roughly four out of five silicon dies are considered flawed. By comparison, leading foundry TSMC (TSM) is estimated to achieve 60%+ yields on its advanced 2nm process — a node roughly three generations (seven years) ahead of SMIC, analysts say.
The supply of the high-bandwidth memory chips required to make AI accelerators may be another potential bottleneck.