At the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China’s Huawei Technologies made waves with the public debut of its CloudMatrix 384 AI computing system — a powerhouse innovation that’s already drawing comparisons to Nvidia’s most advanced offerings.

Unveiled for the first time since its announcement in April, the CloudMatrix 384 has quickly caught the attention of global AI analysts. Industry experts see it as a direct competitor to Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72, positioning Huawei as a serious contender in the high-stakes AI hardware race.

According to semiconductor analyst Dylan Patel of SemiAnalysis, Huawei may now possess AI capabilities that outpace Nvidia, thanks to a strong system design approach. Unlike Nvidia’s 72-chip GB200 NVL72, Huawei’s CloudMatrix 384 integrates 384 of its new Ascend 910C chips. Though each chip may not match Nvidia’s in raw performance, the system’s advanced “supernode” architecture enables ultra-fast interconnectivity, giving it a performance edge in certain metrics.

Despite U.S. export restrictions, Huawei has emerged as China’s leading homegrown alternative in the AI chip sector. Even Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang acknowledged Huawei’s rapid progress, specifically citing the CloudMatrix platform in a recent interview.

While Huawei representatives at the WAIC remained tight-lipped about technical specifics during the event, Huawei Cloud CEO Zhang Pingan confirmed in June that the CloudMatrix 384 is already operational on the company’s cloud infrastructure.

With the AI race intensifying, Huawei’s latest launch marks a significant stride in China’s push toward technological self-reliance — and a bold challenge to global incumbents like Nvidia.