Chinese company Huawei Technologies is preparing to test its latest and most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) processor, which it hopes will replace some higher-end products from US giant Nvidia, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Huawei has approached some Chinese tech companies to test the technical feasibility of the new chip, dubbed the Ascend 910D.

The Chinese company hopes that the latest iteration of its Ascend AI processors will be more powerful than Nvidia's H100, and is expected to receive the first batch of CPU samples as early as the end of May.

Huawei plans to start mass shipments of its advanced AI 910C chip to Chinese customers as early as next month.

Huawei and its Chinese counterparts have struggled for years to catch up with Nvidia in creating high-end chips that could compete with the US firm's model-learning products - a process in which data is fed to algorithms to help them learn to make accurate decisions. 

In an effort to curb China's technological development, especially the advancement of its military forces, Washington has cut China off from Nvidia's cutting-edge AI products, including the flagship B200 chip.

The H100 chip, for example, was banned from sale in China in 2022 by US authorities even before it was launched. | BGNES