Huawei is actively seeking to challenge Nvidia's dominance in the AI chip market by targeting clients in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, offering its older Ascend 910B chips in small volumes and providing cloud access to its more advanced Ascend 910C chips from China.

No confirmed deals have been finalized from Huawei's outreach, although Saudi Arabia shows interest, and the situation in the UAE and Thailand remains uncertain.

While the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand have secured significant deals for Nvidia and AMD chips, Huawei aims to sell several thousand units across these regions, potentially offering an alternative amid ongoing restrictions.

Within the U.S. government, there are internal debates on how to respond to Huawei's expanding efforts, with some officials pushing for quicker action to prevent Huawei from establishing strong market relationships.

To attract customers, Huawei is offering remote access to its CloudMatrix 384 AI system, which utilizes the more powerful Ascend 910C chips, though these are currently not available for export due to supply constraints.

U.S. policymakers remain focused on ensuring American technology remains dominant in AI systems, closely monitoring Huawei's moves in international markets.

The U.S. government is currently undecided on new chip export regulations, with draft policies potentially tightening controls on AI chip sales to Southeast Asian markets, including the Middle East.

U.S. export restrictions, including licensing requirements since 2023, continue to complicate Huawei's efforts to sell chips in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, with discussions about future regulations ongoing.

Huawei has proposed selling around 3,000 Ascend chips to Malaysia, but the status of these negotiations remains unclear, and initial targets for 2026 have been scaled back.

Despite limited scale, Huawei's efforts are viewed with concern by U.S. officials, especially as its chips lag behind Nvidia's offerings, and there are broader worries about China's ambitions in AI chip production.

There is concern among U.S. officials that large-scale exports of U.S. chips could inadvertently benefit China, complicating efforts to restrict Huawei's access to advanced technology.

Huawei's production capacity for AI chips is limited to approximately 200,000 units in 2025, primarily for domestic use, with demand in China far exceeding supply.