CHINA SHENZHEN COMPOSITE, CHINEXT BOTH UP OVER 1%; LITHIUM, PHARMA, CHEMICALS, NONFERROUS METALS LEAD GAINS

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.’s new 950PR AI chip has delivered strong customer testing results, with ByteDance Ltd. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. planning to adopt it at scale, marking a turnaround after limited uptake of its earlier Ascend 910C despite government support for domestic chips. Tech firms are more willing to deploy the 950PR due to improved compatibility with CUDA and faster response speeds, allowing easier migration from Nvidia Corporation’s ecosystem. Samples were delivered in January, with mass production set to begin next month and full shipments expected in the second half. Huawei aims to ship around 750,000 units this year. While offering only modest gains in raw computing power versus the 910C, the chip is optimized for AI inference workloads, aligning with rising demand as Chinese firms shift from model training to real-world deployment. The 950PR is priced at about 50,000 yuan ($6,900) per card, with a higher-end HBM-memory version costing around 70,000 yuan.

CHINA COMMERCE MINISTER MEETS EU TRADE CHIEF - CHINA COMMERCE MINISTRY STATEMENT