Nvidia’s China AI chip market share falls to 34% as Huawei gains ground: IDC

Nvidia’s (NVDA) share of China's market for data-centre AI chips fell to 34% in the first half of 2026 as U.S. export restrictions limited supplies and domestic competitors, led by Huawei, gained ground, according to IDC data seen by Reuters.

Nvidia shipped 678,000 AI accelerators in China between January and June, down 44% from a year earlier, IDC data showed. IDC did not identify the Nvidia products included in its market-share figure or clarify whether it covered advanced chips such as the B200 and B300, which are barred from export to China but have reportedly been smuggled into the country.

AI accelerators are specialized chips designed to train and run artificial intelligence models.

Huawei shipped 572,000 AI accelerators, up from more than 300,000 a year earlier, capturing 28% of the overall market, according to IDC. Alibaba’s (BABA) chip-design unit T-Head held a 7% share, followed by by Cambricon with 5%, Baidu’s (BIDU) Kunlunxin at 4% and Hygon at 3%. Nine of the 11 Chinese chipmakers tracked by IDC increased shipments year over year.

China’s total AI-accelerator shipments reached 2.008 million units in the first half. Shipments of graphics processing units, the chips most widely used to train AI models, fell 26% to 991,000 units as supplies approved for sale in mainland China remained limited, IDC said.

Washington has restricted China’s access to Nvidia’s most powerful AI chips, narrowing the range of products the U.S. chipmaker can sell in the world’s second-largest economy. Beijing has meanwhile promoted domestic alternatives and required Chinese companies to seek approval to import Nvidia chips that comply with U.S. restrictions.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has repeatedly criticized Washington’s export curbs, arguing that the policy is forcing the U.S. company to surrender China’s $50B AI chip market to Huawei.