What about yields? Even if it is 600% faster but yields are 1000x worse, it doesn’t mean much commercially. But if this is an old chip that is easy to fab with equipment China has easy access to, then it is a big deal.
> This suggests that Huawei's AI processor's capabilities are advancing rapidly, despite sanctions by the U.S. government and the lack of access to leading-edge process technologies of TSMC.<p>So chipping away at Taiwan's "silicon shield" (the defence strategy that an attack on Taiwan would deny China of the chips it needs itself).<p>Soon China can have a security situation with Taiwan (doesn't really matter if it actually invades, or just has a hotting-up conflict with rocket exchange) to choke off supplies of high-end chips to the West whilst domestic alternatives ramp up?
The US also has comparable hardware, and it had it for a while: Intel Gaudi. Similar perf characteristics, works very well for inference, costs substantially less than H100. The entire field seems to be drowning in money, so no one gives a shit.
The key piece of information is missing though - at what price and energy cost. For the first sample it sounds exciting, but... they'll have to compete with the cost of smuggling Nvidia into the country.