DeepSeek plans big Huawei AI chip order to power new data centre
The startup doesn’t currently plan to use the 950DT chips for training, one of the people said, even though Huawei designed and marketed these processors to serve that more demanding function. While DeepSeek tried to train its previous models on Huawei chips, it has so far relied on Nvidia accelerators for this crucial step.
DeepSeek, an AI startup, has announced plans to purchase at least 160,000 of Huawei's latest AI chips for its new data center in Inner Mongolia. This could potentially create one of the largest clusters of Huawei AI chips in China, helping the country wean off its reliance on US chipmaker Nvidia. Huawei's next-generation Ascend 950DT chips will be used for operating the models, though they won't be used for training at the moment.
The installation timeline depends on Huawei's production capabilities, and the shortage of components like top-end memory may limit the output of the 950DT chips to a few hundred thousand this year. The Inner Mongolia hub is crucial for DeepSeek's AI infrastructure goals, which aim to consume around 1 gigawatt of energy, enough to power approximately 750,000 homes.
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