DeepSeek plans 160,000 Huawei chip order for Inner Mongolia data center

DeepSeek is preparing to deploy at least 160,000 of Huawei Technologies' next-generation Ascend 950DT AI chips at a gigawatt-scale data center in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, according to Bloomberg, in what would become one of the largest known clusters of Chinese-made AI accelerators. The move marks a notable step in China's effort to build AI infrastructure independent of Nvidia ↗ 2.78% hardware, which US export controls have largely blocked from sale to Chinese buyers.theedgemalaysia+1

The startup intends to use the Huawei chips for inference — running its AI models for users — rather than for training, even though Huawei designed the 950DT for both workloads. DeepSeek has so far continued to rely on Nvidia accelerators for the more demanding task of training its models.thenextweb+2

Production Constraints Cloud the Timeline

Fulfilling the order may take more than a year. Shortages of components, particularly high-end memory, will cap Huawei's 950DT output at the low hundreds of thousands this year. Huawei is also balancing demand from other customers and attempting to export small volumes overseas, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.moneycontrol+1

DeepSeek wants to purchase even more of Huawei's chips than it has ordered, but the chipmaker cannot currently meet that demand. DeepSeek has asked Beijing for help in pressing Huawei to allocate more chips to the startup more quickly, according to Bloomberg's reporting. Neither DeepSeek nor Huawei has commented publicly on the plans.theedgemalaysia+1

A Wider Shift Away from Nvidia

The order reflects a broader pattern across China's AI industry. Beijing has been urging domestic AI labs to switch to Chinese-made hardware, and several companies have begun optimizing their models for Huawei's Ascend processors. DeepSeek's V4 model was tuned to run on Huawei's Ascend 950 when it launched in April, and Chinese cloud providers subsequently ordered hundreds of thousands of the chips.thenextweb+1

The 160,000-chip cluster would dwarf other publicly known deployments of Huawei AI processors. Just six months ago, Shenzhen announced its first 10,000-chip cluster using Huawei's Ascend series. DeepSeek, which raised over $7 billion in June to fund infrastructure buildout, envisions the Inner Mongolia facility as central to its AI development.theedgemalaysia+2

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has previously described DeepSeek running on Huawei chips as a "horrible outcome" for the United States, arguing that export controls risk driving China's AI software ecosystem toward domestic hardware and away from Nvidia's CUDA platform. Each model optimized for Ascend chips deepens a software ecosystem that no longer depends on Nvidia — a shift that, once established, could prove difficult to reverse.thenextweb