Global Courant
The government of Shanghai is stepping up its efforts to attract artificial intelligence (AI) talent and investment and improve regulation with the aim of building a world-class AI hub in Pudong.
Top Shanghai officials said at the World AI Conference on Thursday that China’s largest commercial city – which hosts the conference – will gather and nurture AI experts to strengthen research and development and promote the use of AI technologies in advanced manufacturing, urban management and robotics sectors.
However, Shanghai could face a hardware problem later this month as the Biden administration will soon ban the export of Nvidia’s A800 and H800 AI chips to China and also prevent US investment funds from pouring money into China’s high-tech sector.
In recent years, China’s Huawei Technologies and Cambricon Technologies have launched their AI chips, which are said to operate at speeds of 60 to 70% that of Nvidia’s A100 chip. But production of these chips is now done by Taiwan’s TSMC and could be affected by future US curbs.
Support measures
On May 25, the government of Shanghai in a document appealed to private capital to invest in new infrastructure. It said it will extend the implementation period of its policy to provide an interest rate subsidy of up to 1.5 percentage points to private companies building AI facilities.
It said integrated circuits, biomedical and AI sectors are the top three industries that will build the “Shanghai high ground”.
Currently, Chinese AI companies can still purchase A800 and H800 chips, which were introduced by Nvidia last November after the company’s A100 and H100 chips were added to a US export control list in August last year. It is said that the performance of the A800 has been achieved 70% of the A100s.
According to media reports last week, the US Department of Commerce may also soon ban the export of A800 and H800 chips to China. The announcement was reportedly made after US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s four-day trip to Beijing concluded on July 9.
Ken Hu, Rotating Chairman of Huawei, said Thursday that the company has been working hard on the development of AI chips and industrial applications in recent years.
Hu said both Huawei’s Ascend AI chips and Kunpeng’s central processing units (CPUs) have already made some significant breakthroughs.
According to a research report published Tuesday by CITIC Securities, more than 20 Chinese cities have used Ascend chips in their AI facilities, while Huawei now has a 79% share of China’s AI computing center market.
Some media reports said that the performance of the Ascend 910 is about 70% of that of the A100, while the performance of Cambricon’s Siyuan 370 is about 60-70% of that of the A100. Both chips are manufactured in Taiwan using TSMC’s advanced 7nm technology.
World Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Shanghai, 2023. Photo: CGTN
Made in Taiwan
In May 2019, the US Department of Commerce placed Huawei and its 70 affiliates on its so-called entity list for reasons of national security. Huawei then started using stock chips plus self-developed Kirin chips to maintain its smartphone output.
In September 2020, Taiwan’s TSMC stopped producing Kirin chips. In the third quarter of last year, Huawei ran out of high-end processors and was unable to produce 5G-compatible phones.
A columnist from Hainan published a article last month titled “Huawei’s Ascend 910 chip leads the way in AI computing. Why is it not affected by the US sanctions?”
“Why can TSMC still make Ascend 910 chips but not Kirin 5G chips for Huawei? That’s because they used different technologies,” he says in the article.
He says Ascend 910 used Huawei’s proprietary Da Vinci architecture, while Kirin chips used the United Kingdom’s ARM architecture, as well as technologies from Cadence and Synopsys from the United States.
He adds that TSMC is a Taiwanese foundry, not a US company, so it has some scope to maintain a business relationship with Huawei.
But a Fujian-based writer say that even if TSMC can continue to produce AI chips for China, Chinese companies don’t have the tools to develop more advanced AI chips amid the US curbs and will be left behind by Nvidia.
In May, Nvidia said it will hire 1,000 people and invest up to TWD24.3 billion (US$790 million) in its new AI research center, or AI University, in Taiwan.
World AI conference
The WAIC has been held annually in Shanghai since 2018. This year’s event attracted much more attention as the AI sector has gained popularity after Microsoft-backed OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT 3.5, an AI chatbot, last November. Share prices of Nvidia, which has more than 80% share of the AI chip markets, are up 196% so far this year.
“There is a huge number of very smart and talented people in China,” said Tesla founder Elon Musk said shown in a video during the WAIC. “The Chinese can be good at anything, if they want to, not just in many sectors of the economy, but also in AI. I believe China will have strong AI capabilities.”
“We will create a good atmosphere for gathering AI talent from all over the world, and accelerate the training of a group of top talents that are urgently needed,” said Shanghai party secretary Chen Jining. said in opening speech at the WAIC. “We are committed to open collaboration, building a platform, encouraging collaboration, and creating an open-source and innovative ecology.”
“We will actively explore the application practice of general AI technologies in verticals such as advanced manufacturing and urban management, and accelerate the development of embodied AI and robotics industries,” said Chen. “The cabinet will strengthen safety oversight and continue to improve AI governance and application standards.”
Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng said Shanghai must firmly grasp the wave of new technological revolutions such as AI to upgrade its industries and transform itself into a socialist modern international metropolis with global influence. Gong said the city is aiming to build a high position for itself in the AI industry.
Read: Sanctions start to bite Huawei 4G chips sourcing
Read: Nvidia is turning Taiwan into a world-class AI hub
Follow Jeff Pao on Twitter at @jeffpao3
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