CATEGORY · PAGE 13 OF 27

Chips & Compute

Sunday, July 26, 2026

CHIPS & COMPUTEMODELS
China’s AI Supernodes: The Colossal Clusters Racing to Break the Compute Bottleneck
As AI models expand beyond 1 trillion parameters, a new concept has come to dominate China’s computing landscape: the supernode.
CHIPS & COMPUTEMARKETS
China’s AI Computing Power Hits 962 EFLOPS, Ranking Second Globally as AI Servers Overtake General Servers
China’s total computing power reached 962 exaflops (EFLOPS) in 2025, ranking second globally and accounting for approximately 21% of worldwide AI computing capacity, according to the 2025 China Server Industry Development Report released at the Smart Computing Foundation event in late July.

CHIPS & COMPUTEBIG TECH
Arm China Launches AIOS Alliance to Standardize On-Device AI Across Chinese Hardware
At the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai last week, Arm China quietly unveiled what may become one of the most consequential pieces of infrastructure to come out of the show: the AIOS Alliance, an open-source initiative designed to standardize how AI models run on Chinese-made devices, from smartphones and cars to smart glasses…
CHIPS & COMPUTEPOLICY
China’s Vice Premier Called AI Chip Resisters “Traitors” as Beijing Bet Everything on Huawei
A Wall Street Journal investigation has pulled back the curtain on the political machinery behind China’s domestic AI chip drive, revealing a top-down mobilization campaign led by Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang, one of Xi Jinping’s most trusted lieutenants.
CHIPS & COMPUTEGEOPOLITICS
China’s Memory Chip Giants CXMT and YMTC Ride the AI Boom to New Power — and New US Scrutiny
Two companies that barely registered on the global semiconductor map five years ago are now reshaping the economics of the memory chip industry.

CHIPS & COMPUTEGEOPOLITICS
Huawei Moves to Build Its Own DRAM — Joining Samsung as Only Full-Stack Chip Firm
Huawei Technologies is reportedly taking a massive step toward complete semiconductor self-sufficiency by building and operating its own Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) fabrication plants in mainland China.
CHIPS & COMPUTEBIG TECH
Z.AI Opens 1-Gigawatt AI Data Center Built on Chinese Chips
In a powerful demonstration of China’s growing self-sufficiency in artificial intelligence infrastructure, Beijing-based developer Z.ai has completed the construction of a massive 1-gigawatt AI data center built entirely using domestically produced chips.
CHIPS & COMPUTEBIG TECH
Moore Threads Packs 256 GPUs Into Its MTT C256 System
In a significant development for China’s domestic semiconductor industry, Beijing-based GPU developer Moore Threads has unveiled the MTT C256, a massive computing system that links 256 graphics processing units into a single data-center-scale unit.

MARKETS BIG TECH
AI Is China’s New Economic Engine, Accounting for 17% of GDP as Q2 Growth Slows to 4.3%
Artificial intelligence and related high-tech industries have emerged as the critical growth engine for the Chinese economy, providing vital resilience as traditional sectors continue to drag.
CHIPS & COMPUTEBIG TECH
TSMC Faces $1 Billion+ US Penalty Over Chip Found Inside Huawei AI Processor
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is reportedly facing a massive financial penalty from the United States government following the discovery of a TSMC-manufactured chip inside a Huawei artificial intelligence processor.

CHIPS & COMPUTESOCIETY
The Dirty Secret of Asia’s AI Boom: Powered by Coal
The artificial intelligence revolution is often depicted in sleek, futuristic terms: glowing server racks, lines of elegant code, and the promise of a frictionless digital economy. However, the physical reality underpinning this boom is decidedly more industrial and significantly dirtier.
CHIPS & COMPUTE
Chinese Chip Startup Biren Bets on Light-Based Optical Supernodes to Break the 128-GPU Cluster Ceiling
As the scale of artificial intelligence models continues to explode, the bottleneck in AI development has shifted from the processing power of individual chips to the speed at which thousands of chips can communicate with one another.
CHIPS & COMPUTEGEOPOLITICS
Alibaba Open-Sources Its AI Chip Software Stack in Direct Challenge to Nvidia’s CUDA Dominance
The battle for artificial intelligence supremacy is increasingly fought not just in silicon but also in software. In a move that directly challenges Nvidia’s most formidable moat, Alibaba’s semiconductor division, T-Head, has officially open-sourced its AI software stack, SAIL (Software Architecture for Intelligent Learning).

CHIPS & COMPUTEGEOPOLITICS
Shanghai Startup Yuanjiwei Opens 2D Semiconductor Pilot Line, Targets 5nm-Equivalent Chips Without EUV by 2029
A Shanghai-based semiconductor startup has launched a new 8-inch pilot facility dedicated to two-dimensional materials, marking a significant step in China’s effort to bypass Western equipment restrictions. Yuanjiwei’s new manufacturing line, highlighted in a recent industry roundup by Semiconductor Engineering, will focus on refining process technologies and running low-volume batches.
CHIPS & COMPUTEMARKETS
China’s Chip Exports Nearly Double in H1 2026 as Global AI Boom Drives Record Demand
China’s exports of integrated circuits nearly doubled in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to data reported by Tom’s Hardware, as the global artificial intelligence boom generated unprecedented demand for the chips, servers, and computing components that Chinese manufacturers have been scaling up to supply.

MODELSCHIPS & COMPUTE
China’s AI Adoption Surges in H1 2026 as Daily Token Calls Hit Hundreds of Trillions
As the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) kicks off in Shanghai, new data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) paints a picture of an AI sector experiencing explosive, exponential growth.
CHIPS & COMPUTEMODELS
StepFun Unveils STEPX Neo, the World’s First L3 Certified AI Smartphone
At the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, StepFun, a prominent Chinese AI startup, unveiled the STEPX Neo, a device that marks a significant milestone in the evolution of mobile technology.

CHIPS & COMPUTEGEOPOLITICS
China Produced 279.8 Billion Chips in H1 2026 — and US Export Controls Are Part of the Reason Why
China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that the country produced 279.8 billion integrated circuits in the first half of 2026, a 23.1% increase year-on-year.
CHIPS & COMPUTEBIG TECH
CXMT Locks In $2.94 Billion DRAM Supply Deal with Tencent as IPO Subscriptions Open
China’s Largest Domestic Chip Supply Contract Signed Ahead of IPO ChangXin Memory Technologies has secured a long-term supply agreement with Tencent worth more than 20 billion yuan ($2.94 billion), covering server DRAM deliveries for up to five years.

FUNDINGCHIPS & COMPUTE
CXMT Begins $8.55 Billion IPO Book-Building in Asia’s Largest Listing of 2026
ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China’s leading manufacturer of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips, has officially launched the book-building process for its highly anticipated initial public offering.