China’s AI Chipmakers Raise Prices as Global Memory Shortage Deepens
Chinese AI chipmakers, including Huawei and Cambricon, are raising prices as a global shortage of high-bandwidth memory increases production costs. Huawei’s Ascend 950DT and Cambricon’s upcoming 690 chip have reportedly seen substantial price increases, with smaller manufacturers making similar adjustments.
Tighter U.S. export controls have limited China’s access to some advanced memory products, prompting reliance on more expensive alternative supplies. Rising costs are making it harder to expand computing capacity while demand for domestic alternatives to Nvidia grows.
China’s AI chipmakers are raising prices as a global shortage of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) increases production costs and puts pressure on China’s efforts to develop domestic alternatives to Nvidia.
Huawei has raised the quoted price of its advanced Ascend 950DT AI accelerator card to more than 250,000 yuan, with the increase estimated at around 20% to 50% compared with prices quoted two months earlier.
Chinese chipmaker Cambricon has also increased the quoted price of its upcoming 690 AI chip by around 20% to 30%. Smaller companies, including MetaX and Iluvatar CoreX, have reportedly made similar price increases.
HBM is an important component of modern AI processors because it allows chips to access large amounts of data at very high speeds. The global HBM market is dominated by SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology.
China’s access to some advanced HBM products has been affected by tighter U.S. export controls introduced in December 2024. Chinese chipmakers have increasingly turned to alternative supply channels, where memory can cost significantly more.
The rising memory costs are increasing the overall price of AI hardware and making it more expensive to expand computing capacity in China. At the same time, demand for domestic AI chips is growing as Chinese companies seek alternatives to Nvidia, highlighting the growing importance of memory supplies in the global AI industry.
