Chinese artificial intelligence chipmakers, including Huawei Technologies and Cambricon, have significantly increased prices for current and upcoming AI processors amid rising costs for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), sources familiar with the matter said. The price adjustments underscore the challenges faced by domestic companies striving to develop alternatives to Nvidia’s technology amid tightening U.S. export restrictions.

Huawei has raised the price of its Ascend 950DT accelerator card, which combines an AI processor with memory and other components, to over 250,000 yuan ($37,255). This represents an increase of 20 to 50 percent compared to prices offered just two months ago, depending on contract terms. The company has stated that the 950DT, its most advanced AI chip, is expected to be available in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Similarly, Cambricon has increased prices for its forthcoming AI processor, tentatively named the 690, by 20 to 30 percent above levels indicated two months prior, though exact figures remain undisclosed. Smaller domestic competitors such as MetaX and Iluvatar CoreX have enacted comparable price hikes, according to the sources, who declined to be identified due to the private nature of pricing discussions.

The price increases reflect the ongoing global shortage of HBM, a critical component that facilitates fast access to large volumes of data by vertically stacking memory chips. The HBM market is dominated by South Korean firms SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, as well as the U.S.-based Micron Technology. Since the U.S. tightened export controls on advanced HBM products to China in December 2024, Chinese chipmakers have increasingly resorted to grey-market sources to obtain these components, resulting in prices several times higher than those paid by buyers outside China.

Higher memory costs are directly affecting the overall price of AI accelerator cards. Huawei has announced that its Ascend 950 series will employ two proprietary HBM technologies—HiBL 1.0 on the 950PR and HiZQ 2.0 on the 950DT—though details on the origin or manufacturing of these memories have not been disclosed. The 950DT is designed primarily for AI model development and response generation, while the 950PR processes user requests before handing them off to the model.

Prices for Huawei’s older AI chips have also risen notably. The Ascend 950PR, which initially sold for around 60,000 yuan earlier this year, now commands over 80,000 yuan, an increase of about 30 percent. The older Ascend 910C board has climbed from approximately 90,000 yuan to more than 110,000 yuan in the same period.

These price surges highlight growing bottlenecks in the Chinese AI chip sector, which had seen opportunities emerge in the wake of U.S. export restrictions limiting access to Nvidia’s most advanced processors. The shortage of critical memory components is forcing chipmakers to rearrange supply allocations to meet rising demand.

Iluvatar CoreX has reportedly doubled its shipments of graphics processing units (GPUs)—chips commonly used to train and run AI systems—to ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, reaching 100,000 units this year. The company has also redirected GPUs originally intended for internal use to fulfill ByteDance’s increased requirements.

While Cambricon’s current flagship processor is the 590, the 690 has not yet been formally launched. Huawei remains ByteDance’s largest domestic AI chip supplier, followed by Cambricon and Iluvatar CoreX. ByteDance and the chipmakers declined to comment on these developments.