Nine domestically developed AI processors were certified for Chinese state procurement in May 2026, and the implications for the global semiconductor industry are hard to overstate. The list includes chips from Huawei, Biren, Alibaba, and several other local players, all of which are now eligible for government contracts that were, until recently, Nvidia’s bread and butter in the region.
Nvidia’s share of the Chinese AI chip market is projected to crater from roughly 66% in 2024 to around 8% by 2026.
Beijing’s silicon strategy takes shape
Huawei’s Ascend series processors are the headliner on the approved list. The company is projected to capture approximately 50% of China’s AI chip market by 2026, up from about 40% in 2025.
Alibaba’s T-Head chips also made the cut, giving the e-commerce and cloud giant a direct pipeline into government AI infrastructure spending.
