By TradingView
Publication Date: 2026-10-13 16:29:00
Nvidia’s NVDA grip on China’s AI chip market weakened sharply in the first half of 2026, with its market share falling to 34% as U.S. export restrictions limited supply and domestic rivals led by Huawei gained ground.
According to IDC data cited by Reuters, Nvidia shipped 678,000 AI accelerators in China between January and June, down 44% year over year.
Huawei, meanwhile, shipped 572,000 accelerators, up from more than 300,000 a year earlier, giving it a 28% market share.
That leaves Nvidia still in the lead, but with a much narrower advantage.
Other Chinese chipmakers are also gaining traction. Alibaba’s T-Head held 7% of the market, Cambricon had 5%, Baidu’s Kunlunxin captured 4%, and Hygon accounted for 3%.
Nine of the 11 Chinese chipmakers tracked by IDC increased shipments year over year.
China’s total AI accelerator shipments reached 2.008 million units in the first half, while GPU shipments declined 26% to 991,000 as supplies of chips approved for sale in mainland China remained constrained.
The backdrop is largely regulatory.
Washington has blocked China from accessing Nvidia’s most advanced AI processors, while Beijing has increasingly promoted domestic alternatives and requires companies to seek approval before importing some Nvidia chips that comply with U.S. restrictions.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has repeatedly criticized those policies, arguing they are effectively handing China’s roughly $50 billion AI chip opportunity to local competitors such as Huawei.
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