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NVIDIA's China AI Chip Share Drops to 34% as Huawei Surges to 28%

NVIDIA's Grip on China's AI Chip Market Slips

NVIDIA's dominance in China's data center AI chip market is fading. According to an IDC report seen by Reuters, the company's share fell to 34% in the first half of 2026. That's a sharp drop for a firm that once seemed untouchable.

Why the decline? U.S. export restrictions have choked off NVIDIA's ability to supply its most advanced chips to Chinese customers. Meanwhile, domestic rivals have seized the moment. From January to June, NVIDIA shipped 678,000 AI accelerators in China—down a staggering 44% from a year earlier.

CEO Jensen Huang hasn't minced words. He's repeatedly blasted Washington's policies, arguing they're forcing NVIDIA to hand over China's $50 billion AI chip market to Huawei. Yet IDC's report leaves some questions unanswered: which products make up that 34%? Are advanced chips like the B200 and B300 even included? The picture remains fuzzy.

Huawei Leads the Domestic Charge

The shipment numbers tell the real story. Among 11 Chinese chipmakers tracked by IDC, nine grew in the first half of the year. Huawei was the clear winner, shipping 572,000 AI accelerators—up from just over 300,000 in the same period last year. Its market share now sits at 28%, nipping at NVIDIA's heels.

Other domestic players are carving out their own slices. T-Head grabbed 7%, Cambricon 5%, Baidu's Kunlun chip 4%, and Hygon 3%. Together, they're rewriting the rules of a market that NVIDIA once ruled almost unchallenged.

NVIDIA declined to comment on the figures. But the trend is hard to ignore: policies meant to hobble Chinese competitors have instead turbocharged China's supply chain substitution. Huawei and its peers nearly doubled shipments in a year. The once-monopolized market is now tilting irreversibly toward a multipolar structure.

Key Points

  • NVIDIA's China AI chip share fell to 34% in H1 2026, with shipments down 44% year-over-year.
  • Huawei surged to 28% share, shipping 572,000 AI accelerators—nearly double last year's volume.
  • Nine of 11 domestic chipmakers grew, with T-Head, Cambricon, Baidu, and Hygon also gaining ground.
  • U.S. export restrictions backfired, accelerating China's push for self-sufficiency in AI chips.
  • The market is shifting from monopoly to multipolar, a change that looks irreversible.