DeepSeek says it has partnered with Huawei to develop programming tools for Huawei's Ascend chips, including TileLang, an open-source CUDA alternative (Reuters)

Chinese AI company DeepSeek has announced a partnership with Huawei Technologies to develop programming tools for Huawei's Ascend chips, marking the latest instance of Chinese tech firms strengthening alliances to reduce dependence on the Nvidia ecosystem. DeepSeek shared the news on its official WeChat account, revealing its commitment to open-source infrastructure for Huawei's Ascend platform, which includes a high-level programming language known as TileLang, as well as associated compute and communication libraries.

The primary objective of this collaboration is to establish an independent and self-controlled GPU software ecosystem. DeepSeek emphasized that their top priority is creating a high-level language that is universal, easy to program, and still capable of fully utilizing the hardware's performance potential. TileLang was specifically designed to meet this goal, according to the company.

TileLang was developed to fulfill the need for a simpler programming model compared to Nvidia's CUDA. By offering a more straightforward programming model, DeepSeek aims to enhance development efficiency and simplify code logic. This move highlights the growing trend among Chinese tech companies to seek alternatives to the Nvidia ecosystem and establish their own GPU software infrastructure.