By Efosa Udinmwen
Publication Date: 2025-12-06 21:30:00
- Cambricon plans to produce 500,000 AI accelerator chips next year
- The Siyuan 590 and 690 models account for 300,000 units
- Current yield rates remain extremely low at only 20%
Chinese chipmaker Cambricon Technologies aims to triple AI chip production in 2026, seeking to fill the gap left by Nvidia’s retreat from the Chinese market.
Bloomberg reports that the company intends to produce approximately 500,000 AI accelerator chips next year, with 300,000 units consisting of its main Siyuan 590 and 690 models.
This represents a sharp increase from the roughly 142,000 units expected in 2025, yet Cambricon still faces major fabrication challenges.
Fabrication challenges and yield limitations
The reported yield rate for its 590 and 690 chips stands at just 20%, meaning that only one in five chips produced is usable.
Even with access to capacity at Semiconductor Manufacturing International, the effective output could fall far below projections.
By comparison, TSMC’s 2nm technology, seven generations ahead of SMIC’s capabilities, reaches a 60% yield, showing the efficiency gap.
Shortages of memory, including HBM and LPDDR components, further threaten the ability to meet production goals, potentially slowing delivery to data center clients.
Cambricon’s move comes as Chinese companies like Alibaba and ByteDance increasingly favor local…
