Middle East, Asia seen as test markets for Huawei AI chips
The Chinese tech giant has begun offering limited quantities of its older-generation Ascend 910B AI chips to prospective buyers in countries like the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand, the report said, citing sources familiar with the discussions.
Huawei is positioning itself as a rival to dominant U.S. chipmaker Nvidia, which currently leads the global AI semiconductor market. While Huawei's chip offerings are relatively modest—reportedly in the low thousands—no transactions have been finalized. According to Bloomberg, the UAE has not expressed interest, and the status of talks in Thailand remains unclear.
Officials from Thailand and Saudi Arabia did not respond to requests for comment. Huawei also did not reply to Reuters' inquiries.
In addition to physical chips, Huawei is pitching remote access to CloudMatrix 384, a China-based AI computing platform powered by its more advanced chips. Due to supply constraints, those newer chips are not currently available for export, the report said.
The Middle East has become an increasingly attractive market for AI infrastructure, with multiple U.S. tech companies announcing partnerships and sales in the region. In May, President Donald Trump announced US$600 billion in commercial commitments from Saudi Arabia to U.S. firms.
Back in China, Huawei is focused on its newer 910C chips, supplying them to domestic companies that have been cut off from U.S. semiconductor imports due to export restrictions.
"With the current export controls, we are effectively out of the China datacenter market, which is now served only by competitors such as Huawei," an Nvidia spokesperson said.
Successive U.S. administrations have maintained tight controls on chip exports to China, citing fears that cutting-edge technology could be used to advance Beijing's military capabilities.
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