Nvidia vs Huawei: China's AI Chip Market Collapse

Nvidia vs Huawei: How China's AI Chip Market Went From 95% to Almost Nothing

U.S. export controls handed Huawei China's AI chip market, and Nvidia's own CEO now says the company is effectively foreclosed from competing there.

Jun 29, 2026

by Ogbonda Chivumnovu

Nvidia once had 95% market share of AI chips in China. But that market share is close to zero now.

Following U.S. export control measures imposed against Nvidia, starting in 2022, China compelled its technology firms to purchase domestically produced chips. Huawei stepped into the void created by Nvidia and has been steadily expanding ever since.

According to an analysis from Bernstein Research, Nvidia's market share of China's AI chip market will drop to around 8% in 2026, as that of Huawei grows to 50%. Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, has admitted the company is no longer competitive in the Chinese data center market.

This is one of the quickest market share declines in semiconductors and it took less than five years to occur.

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