According to people familiar with the matter, the Chinese tech giant has approached potential buyers in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand about purchasing volumes in the low thousands of its older-generation 910B chips. These efforts aim to gain a foothold in markets where Nvidia and AMD have struck major multi-year deals worth well over a million chips in total.
While Huawei’s proposed exports are small compared to these American rivals, the company is also trying to attract customers with remote access to CloudMatrix 384, an AI system hosted in China and powered by its more advanced Ascend 910C chips. However, due to limited manufacturing capacity, Huawei is prioritising domestic customers for the 910C and is not offering those chips for export at this stage.
The outreach has yet to yield firm contracts, sources said, but reflects Huawei’s strategy to seed foreign markets with its technology and build relationships as it ramps up production capacity. Despite facing tight supply constraints—one Trump-era estimate suggests it can produce only 200,000 AI chips this year, mainly for domestic demand exceeding a million units—the company maintains a stockpile of roughly 2.9 million 910B dies sourced from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
The push comes as US officials intensify scrutiny of AI infrastructure deals in the Gulf and Southeast Asia. Washington has pressed allies and partners to avoid adopting Chinese AI technology, citing security concerns and the risk of cementing Huawei’s influence in sensitive data centres.
Parties in the UAE, including the state-backed Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, have so far shown no interest in Huawei’s offer, according to sources. The status of discussions in Thailand remains unclear, while in Saudi Arabia, talks with the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA) have reportedly advanced but remain unresolved. SDAIA declined to comment directly, saying only that the matter is “outside our current scope.”
In Malaysia, Huawei has pursued a deal to supply around 3,000 Ascend chips, but both the company and the Malaysian government have downplayed the project’s status.
Meanwhile, the US government has grappled with how to regulate American AI chip exports. Sales of Nvidia and AMD chips to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf states have required US licenses since 2023. While the Commerce Department announced plans in May to tighten these restrictions and expand license requirements to Malaysia and Thailand, officials have yet to finalise the new rules.
That gap has left uncertainty hanging over billions of dollars in planned US chip deals, including those promoted during President Trump’s May visit to the Gulf. Some administration officials argue that the US must move quickly to approve these sales, fearing Huawei could lock in buyers now and scale shipments later. Others contend that Huawei’s limited export capacity—and the fact that it is offering older chips, not its most advanced—means Washington can afford to take a more cautious approach.
The situation underscores the geopolitical dimensions of the global AI race. While many countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia have tried to avoid taking sides between Washington and Beijing, the US has ramped up diplomatic pressure, offering access to advanced American chips under conditions that remain under negotiation.
For its part, Huawei declined to comment on the latest outreach efforts. But in earlier statements, it has denied shipping Ascend chips to Malaysia and has said it remains focused on supporting China’s domestic AI market—where demand is booming amid restrictions on imports of leading US chips.
The Commerce Department has previously warned that any unapproved use of Huawei’s Ascend 910B, 910C, or forthcoming 910D processors worldwide could violate US trade restrictions, given the American technology involved in their design and manufacture. Although it later softened language referencing global bans, the agency maintains that violations may result in penalties.
As Huawei pushes to gain ground abroad, its efforts will likely remain a key flashpoint in the intensifying technological competition between the US and China—especially in regions eager to build their own AI capabilities while balancing the demands of rival superpowers.