Nvidia Loses Market to Chinese Chips

US export restrictions and the strengthening of China's domestic rivals, particularly Huawei, have reduced Nvidia's share of China's AI accelerator market.

US export restrictions and the strengthening of China's domestic rivals, especially Huawei, have reduced Nvidia's share of the Chinese AI accelerator market.

According to Ambassador Arjan, quoted by Reuters, Nvidia sent about 678,000 artificial intelligence accelerators to China from January to June 2026, which is 44% less than the same period last year. AI accelerators are specialized chips used to train and run AI models.

The US government has restricted China's access to Nvidia's most powerful artificial intelligence chips. As a result, the range of products that this American company can supply to the world's second largest economy has decreased. At the same time, the Chinese government has encouraged the development of domestic alternatives and required Chinese companies to obtain approval to import licensed Nvidia chips.

Research firm IDC did not specify which Nvidia products accounted for the company's 34 percent market share. It's also not clear if this figure includes advanced chips like the B200 and B300; Chips whose export to China is banned, but reports of their smuggling to this country have been published.

After Nvidia, Alibaba's chips have a seven percent share and Cambricon's products have a five percent share. Baidu and Kunlunxin each have four percent and Hygon three percent of this market.

Among the 11 Chinese chipmakers that IDC surveyed, 9 companies experienced an increase in their shipments compared to last year.

In total, the shipments of artificial intelligence accelerators in the first half of 2026 have reached about 2.008 million units.