Tencent Stands Firm! Rejects NVIDIA’s ‘Cut-Down’ Chip, Chinese Tech No Longer a Pushover!
Hello everyone, I am Lao Chen. Yesterday I saw a piece of news that was quite satisfying – Tencent directly rejected NVIDIA’s ‘cut-down’ H20 chip! Upon seeing this news, I couldn’t help but applaud.
01. Remembering the Past Dilemma
Do you remember a few years ago? Chinese internet companies were desperate for high-end AI chips. NVIDIA’s A100 chip was in short supply, and the price was outrageous – a single chip sold for 150,000 RMB!
What was even worse was that the U.S. would often impose ‘sanctions’, giving you chips when they felt like it and cutting off supplies when they didn’t. At that time, Chinese tech companies could only wait in line with their heads down, like they were begging for alms.
What was most frustrating? It was that even though they had the money to buy, they were still looked down upon. NVIDIA executives spoke with an air of arrogance, saying, ‘This is the most advanced chip, not everyone is worthy of using it.’ Isn’t that just plain disrespect?
02. A Turning Point – You Know the Temper of the Chinese
But what is the temperament of the Chinese? The more you don’t want me to do something, the more I will do it! Since 2022, Chinese tech companies have been building up their momentum.
Huawei took the lead with the return of the Kirin chip. Alibaba developed its own ‘Hanguang’ series chips. Tencent was also busy, with its self-developed ‘Zixiao’ chip starting large-scale internal applications. Everyone was secretly competing – it’s just a chip, we can make our own!
At this point, NVIDIA started to panic. Seeing China as the world’s largest AI chip market, they couldn’t sit still. They hurriedly launched the so-called ‘China Special Edition’ H20 chip.
03. ‘Cut-Down’ Chip? Tencent: We Don’t Want It!
This H20 chip is essentially a ‘cut-down’ version of the original H100 chip, with performance reduced by 40%, yet the price is only 10% cheaper. Isn’t this just treating the Chinese as fools?
Tencent’s stance is clear – ‘We would rather wait for our own chip than accept your cut-down version!’ The head of Tencent Cloud stated in an internal meeting, ‘The cost-performance ratio of the H20 is even worse than our self-developed chip.’
Not only Tencent, but also major companies like ByteDance and Baidu have expressed their ‘lack of interest’ in the H20 chip. NVIDIA originally expected to sell 500,000 H20 chips in China, but so far they haven’t even sold 50,000!
04. The Rise of Chinese Chips is Impressive
Why are Chinese tech companies so assertive now? Because we really have the confidence. Huawei’s Ascend 910B chip can now compete with NVIDIA’s A100 in AI training and is 30% cheaper!
Tencent’s ‘Zixiao’ chip is now being deployed on a large scale in Tencent Cloud’s data centers, with processing power 15% stronger than NVIDIA’s equivalent products. Alibaba’s ‘Hanguang 800’ chip is 10 times faster than NVIDIA’s T4 chip in image recognition!
What is most exciting? From technological blockade to now, we have only taken less than three years to go from ‘begging to buy’ to ‘not being interested’. This speed and efficiency have truly left the whole world dumbfounded!
05. Now It’s NVIDIA’s Turn to Worry
The situation has completely reversed. NVIDIA’s stock price dropped by 12% due to losses in the Chinese market, and Jensen Huang is probably dreaming about how to win back Chinese customers.
The funniest part is that NVIDIA is now trying to ‘make amends’, saying they will ‘reconsider their strategy for the Chinese market’. Where did the arrogance of the past go? Now they realize the importance of the Chinese market?
However, Chinese tech companies are no longer the ‘little sheep’ that can be easily slaughtered. We have our own chips and our own technology, why should we still look at your face?
Ultimately, this incident teaches us a lesson – core technology must be in our own hands, otherwise we will always be at the mercy of others. Now, Chinese tech companies can finally stand tall and say ‘no’!
Today, you may ignore me, but tomorrow I will make you regret it!
That’s all for today’s topic, feel free to leave comments for discussion!