China’s AI compute surge heavily reliant on US chips, offshore cloud access: report

AI Summary

A report says China’s available AI computing capacity is expected to nearly double in 2027, from about 4.6 million to 8.8 million H100-equivalents. Despite the growth, US-designed chips are projected to supply roughly 65 percent of the capacity, while offshore cloud access also remains important.

China’s access to artificial intelligence computing power will double next year, but US-designed chips will account for about 65 per cent of that capacity, an indication of its continued reliance on foreign hardware, according to new research. Total compute available to Chinese entities was expected to expand in 2027 from about 4.6 million to 8.8 million “H100-equivalents” – a metric benchmarked against Nvidia’s data-centre graphics processing units, according to a report by the Washington-based...