Chinese chipmakers claim nearly half of local market as Nvidia's lead shrinks

(Corrects to clarify attribution)

By Che Pan and Laurie Chen

BEIJING, April 1 (Rtrs) - Chinese GPU and AI spot makers captured astir 41% of China's ‌AI accelerator server marketplace past year, eroding Nvidia's once-dominant presumption successful ‌one of its astir important overseas markets, according to information from an IDC study reviewed by ​Reuters.

The gains travel arsenic Beijing grows progressively cautious astir dependence connected overseas chips, pushing authorities agencies and companies to follow home alternatives aft successive waves of U.S. export controls chopped China disconnected from Nvidia’s astir precocious products.

Total shipments of AI ‌accelerator cards by Nvidia, ⁠AMD, and Chinese chipmakers reached astir 4 cardinal units successful China successful 2025, the information showed.

Nvidia remained the marketplace leader, ⁠shipping astir 2.2 cardinal cards and holding a 55% share. But that fig marks a important retreat for the U.S. chipmaker, which held a ascendant marketplace stock ​in China's ​AI spot market. AMD carved retired a ​modest presence, shipping astir 160,000 ‌cards for a 4% share, the IDC information showed.

Chinese vendors collectively shipped 1.65 cardinal cards, accounting for 41% of the full marketplace — a milestone that underscores however aggressively home players person moved to capable the void near by tightening U.S. export controls.

Huawei Technologies emerged arsenic the runaway person among Chinese vendors, ‌shipping astir 812,000 AI chips, astir fractional of ​all domestically branded shipments. Alibaba's spot plan ​unit T-Head claimed 2nd place, ​shipping astir 265,000 cards.

Baidu's Kunlunxin and Cambricon each shipped astir ‌116,000 cards, ranking them jointly 3rd among ​Chinese vendors.

Hygon, GPU ​startups MetaX and Iluvatar CoreX accounted for 5%, 4% and 3% of full Chinese vendor shipments, respectively.

In 2025, the cardinal authorities launched a ​new question of AI infrastructure ‌spending, with section governments accelerating intelligent computing centers crossed provinces, galore ​of which carried implicit directives to "buy Chinese."

(Reporting by Che Pan ​and Laurie Chen, Editing by Louise Heavens)