Huawei expects $12 billion in AI chip revenue this year, driven by domestic demand for its proprietary AI models and constrained by Chinese fab capacity struggling to keep up. NVIDIA's market share in China has cratered from a near-monopoly to near zero as Beijing's sanctions drive localization of both silicon and software.
For global chip buyers, this signals a structural shift: China is buildout redundant, sovereign AI infrastructure on homegrown silicon. Expect longer lead times, quality-control learning curves, and bifurcated supply chains as Western and Chinese stacks diverge.