In 2019, when Huawei stopped using Cambricon’s technology for its smartphones, the Chinese AI chip designer lost the bulk of its business, in what could have been a devastating blow.
But six years later, a pivot has made Cambricon Huawei’s primary challenger in China, with investors placing big bets that it will be one of the winners from Beijing’s campaign to achieve more technological self-sufficiency and cut its AI industry’s reliance on chips made by US tech giant Nvidia.
Cambricon’s share price has shot higher on speculation that it could become the leading supplier of chips to power models developed by DeepSeek, the Chinese AI champion whose technological breakthrough stunned Silicon Valley and markets this year.