China’s artificial intelligence companies have announced two new industry alliances, aiming to develop a domestic ecosystem to reduce dependence on foreign tech as they seek to cope with U.S. export restrictions on advanced Nvidia, opens new tab chipsets.
The announcements were timed to coincide with the three-day World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai ending on Monday.
The conference also showcased a slew of new products, such as an AI computing system from Huawei that experts believe rivals Nvidia’s most advanced offering, as well as consumer-friendly products such as several kinds of digital AI glasses.
The “Model-Chip Ecosystem Innovation Alliance” brings together Chinese developers of large language models (LLMs) and AI chip manufacturers.
“This is an innovative ecosystem that connects the complete technology chain from chips to models to infrastructure,” said Zhao Lidong, CEO of Enflame, one of the participating chipmakers.
Other manufacturers of graphics processing units (GPUs) in the alliance include Huawei, Biren, and Moore Threads, which have been hit by U.S. sanctions that block them from purchasing advanced tech made with U.S. know-how. The alliance was announced by StepFun, an LLM developer.
A second alliance, the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce AI Committee, aims to “promote the deep integration of AI technology and industrial transformation.”
Participants include SenseTime (0020.HK), opens new tab, also sanctioned by the U.S. and which has pivoted from facial recognition technology to LLMs. Others are StepFun and another LLM developer, MiniMax, as well as chipmakers Metax and Iluvatar CoreX.
One of the most talked about products at the conference was Huawei’s CloudMatrix 384 which incorporates 384 of its latest 910C chips and outperforms Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72 on some metrics, according to U.S. research firm SemiAnalysis.
Reuters
