Alibaba Group Holding’s semiconductor design unit, T-Head, has developed an artificial intelligence chip with capabilities that are on par with Nvidia’s H20 graphics processing unit (GPU), according to a report by state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV).
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The report, which aired on Tuesday, showed T-Head’s PPU, an application-specific integrated circuit, being compared with Nvidia’s H20 and A800 GPUs in a performance benchmark during Premier Li Qiang’s visit to a data centre operated by China Unicom in northwestern Qinghai province.
Li was briefed by China Unicom on the use of mainland-developed chips in the telecommunications network operator’s infrastructure.
This marked the first time that Alibaba’s proficiency in semiconductor design was highlighted in a state broadcast, which offered fresh evidence that Chinese developers are designing advanced chips that could replace imports like Nvidia’s GPUs. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares closed 5.28 per cent higher at HK$161.60 on Wednesday, as the CCTV report seized the market’s attention.
The footage aired by CCTV showed a chart that compared a number of locally designed AI accelerators with Nvidia’s two GPUs, which were tailored for China to comply with US tech export restrictions.
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