Huawei launched the Atlas 950 SuperPoD, Atlas 960 SuperPoD, Atlas 950 SuperCluster and Atlas 960 SuperCluster which are computer clusters developed for training artificial intelligence (AI) models. All of them are locally made alternatives to AI chips produced by third-party companies such as NVIDIA and AMD.
The Atlas 950 SuperPoD is equipped with 8,192 Ascend NPUs while the Atlas 960 SuperPoD is equipped with 15,488 Ascend NPUs. Huawei claims that their SuperPoD is the most powerful in the world at the moment.
The Atlas 950 SuperCluster is a more powerful system equipped with 500,000 Ascend BPUs with the Atlas 960 SuperCluster equipped with 1 million Ascend NPUs. This time Huawei says that it will surpass the capabilities of other SuperCluster systems on the market.
In recent weeks, the Chinese government has advised local companies to stop buying NVIDIA AI chips and to stop testing new chips under development. Instead, the use of local chips is recommended to ensure that China's AI ecosystem is not disrupted if the United States imposes stricter technological barriers in the future.