When German Gref, chief executive of Sberbank, told Russian state broadcaster Channel One in May that he hoped to run the country's flagship GigaChat AI model on Chinese-made processors, it highlighted how difficult getting access to the global supply chain was for countries like Russia.

Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender and the driving force behind Russia's push into AI, is seeking to secure Chinese chips because Western sanctions continue to block its access to advanced hardware from abroad. Tom’s Hardware’s own reporting suggests the most likely candidate to power Sberbank’s systems is Huawei's Ascend 950 family, the most advanced silicon China currently produces.