Under the weight of sustained US export controls on advanced semiconductors, China’s AI chipmakers are battling to forge a self-reliant silicon ecosystem capable of breaking Nvidia’s stranglehold on the market.

At the centre of this rivalry is a fundamental design debate: Should the country rely on the versatile graphics processing unit (GPU) or pivot to the highly specialised application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)?

The fight is no longer about finding a single Nvidia clone; it is about building a domestic ecosystem of chips that can reliably support top Chinese AI models from the likes of DeepSeek and Alibaba Group Holding.

As competition heats up among major domestic players like Huawei Technologies, Cambricon Technologies and Moore Threads, the South China Morning Post breaks down the differences between these two paths – and which one is poised to dictate the future of Chinese AI.

GPU: Who is China’s Nvidia?

The GPU was originally engineered to render video game graphics. Nvidia popularised the term in the 1990s with its GeForce 256, marketed as “the world’s first GPU”.