Despite years of US trade restrictions, Chinese telecom giant Huawei has quietly emerged as one of China’s strongest contenders in the field of artificial intelligence.

Based in Shenzhen, the company is not only seen as China’s answer to US AI chip leader Nvidia but was also among the first to monetize AI models through industrial applications.

“Huawei has been forced to shift and broaden its core focus over the past decade due to multiple external pressures,” said Paul Triolo, Partner and Senior VP for China at consultancy DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group.

This expansion has led the company into diverse areas—from smart cars and operating systems to the critical technologies driving the AI revolution, including advanced semiconductors, data centers, chips, and large language models.

“No other tech company has demonstrated this level of competency across so many complex and high-barrier sectors,” Triolo added.

Even Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently acknowledged Huawei’s progress, describing it as “one of the most powerful tech companies in the world,” and warning that Huawei could replace Nvidia in the Chinese market if Washington continues its export restrictions on advanced chips.

Nvidia’s market capitalization surpassed $4 trillion last week, making it the most valuable company globally, thanks to its cutting-edge processors and its CUDA computing platform, the industry standard for training AI models.

But that dominance is now being challenged, as Huawei proves capable of delivering high-quality performance across a broad spectrum.

From Small Distributor to National Hero

Founded in 1987 by ambitious entrepreneur Ren Zhengfei, Huawei started as a small distributor of telephone switches from a Shenzhen apartment.

Over time, it grew into a major player in the telecom space, expanding first into emerging markets such as Africa, the Middle East, Russia, and Latin America before breaking into Europe.

By 2019, Huawei was well-positioned to benefit from the global launch of 5G networks and had become one of the top smartphone manufacturers. It also began designing its own chips through its HiSilicon unit.

But its success attracted scrutiny—particularly from the United States, which repeatedly accused Huawei of threatening national security, allegations the company has consistently denied.

In 2019, the US dealt Huawei a heavy blow by placing it on a trade blacklist, barring American firms from doing business with it.

This slashed revenue from its consumer unit—then its largest—to about $34 billion in 2021, half of the previous year’s total.

Still, the company pressed on with AI chip development, even after further sanctions in 2020 severed its ties with Taiwan’s TSMC.

In 2019, Huawei launched its Ascend 910 AI processor as part of a strategy to build a comprehensive, end-to-end AI ecosystem.

While the sanctions were intended to cripple Huawei, they instead helped turn it into a national symbol, especially after the 2018 arrest of CFO and founder’s daughter Meng Wanzhou in Canada over alleged sanctions violations related to Iran.

“The US restrictions pushed Huawei into the arms of the Chinese government in a way Ren Zhengfei had long tried to avoid,” said Triolo, “but they ultimately accelerated the company’s AI progress.”

The Comeback

In 2023, Huawei’s consumer business saw a strong rebound, thanks to the launch of a smartphone featuring what analysts say is an advanced, China-made chip.

That surprise chip was indirectly linked to Chinese firm SMIC, which is also under US sanctions.

Though semiconductor analysts believe the chip’s production capacity is limited, Huawei proved it was back in the game.

Reports soon emerged about a new AI chip, the Ascend 910B, and the company is now preparing for mass production of the next-gen 910C.

“Huawei has made significant progress in emulating high-performance GPU capabilities using clusters of less advanced chips,” said Jeffrey Towson, Managing Partner at TechMoat Consulting.

In April, Huawei unveiled its CloudMatrix 384 system, which connects 384 Ascend 910C chips in a single data center cluster.

Analysts noted that the system outperforms Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72 in some benchmarks.

“Huawei isn’t just catching up—it’s redefining how AI infrastructure should work,” said a recent Forrester report.

The company also developed its own software stack to replace CUDA, called CANN, boosting its in-house software capabilities.

“The AI race isn’t just about faster chips—it’s also about development tools, and Huawei is building a full-stack solution,” the report added.

But Huawei’s ambitions go beyond just challenging Nvidia. Chips are only one building block in its broader AI strategy.

Today, Huawei’s operations span the full AI value chain—from chips and computing power to models and applications.

In 2023, its ICT infrastructure unit—which includes 5.5G networks and industrial AI systems—became its largest revenue source, generating 362 billion yuan.

Through its cloud arm, Huawei Cloud (founded in 2017 to compete with AWS and Oracle), the company runs data centers powered by Ascend chips and CloudMatrix systems.

It uses these to train its Pangu series of AI models, which are tailored for sectors like healthcare, finance, government, industry, and automotive. These models have been deployed in over 20 industries in the past year.

“Often, our engineers stay on-site for months—even in remote mines—to implement AI solutions,” said Jack Chen, VP of marketing for Huawei’s oil, gas, and mining unit.

In May, the company deployed over 100 autonomous electric trucks powered by 5G, AI, and Huawei’s cloud infrastructure to transport coal and soil.

Chen added that this technology “can be widely replicated across Central Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region.”

Huawei has also open-sourced its Pangu models in a move to expand its global reach and bolster what it calls its “Ascend ecosystem”—a complete suite of intelligent products built on Ascend chips.

Patrick Moorhead, CEO of Moor Insights & Strategy, told CNBC: “I expect Huawei to push Ascend chips into Belt and Road countries.”

He concluded that within 5 to 10 years, the company could build a significant market share in those nations—just as it did before in telecom.

US stock indices rose during Monday’s trading as investors closely monitored the upcoming corporate earnings season.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick reaffirmed that August 1 remains a firm deadline for the implementation of tariffs, though he indicated that dialogue with affected countries could continue beyond that date.

Later this week, earnings results from several major US tech companies are expected, with Alphabet and Tesla scheduled to report on Wednesday.

As for market performance, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 0.5% (224 points) to 44,566 as of 16:33 GMT. The broader S&P 500 index gained 0.6% (38 points) to 6,335, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.7% (160 points) to 21,054.

Zinc prices rose during Monday’s trading on the London Metal Exchange, reaching their highest level in four months, after data showed that more than half of the exchange-registered inventories had been earmarked for withdrawal.

Data from LME warehouses revealed that total zinc inventories stand at 118,200 tons, with nearly 50%—approximately 59,900 tons—already allocated for delivery, raising expectations of tightening supply.

Natalie Scott-Gray, Senior Metals Analyst at StoneX, commented that it remains unclear whether the recent movement in inventories is driven by genuine demand or by commercial arrangements to benefit from storage yields.

She added in remarks to Reuters that if similar quantities are not returned to the exchange in the coming weeks, it could indicate real demand from the European market.

Meanwhile, the US Dollar Index fell by 0.7% to 97.7 points as of 16:19 GMT, after recording a high of 98.5 and a low of 97.7.

In trading, the most active zinc futures on the London Metal Exchange rose by 0.4% to $2,834 per ton, after touching $2,876—the highest level since March 28.

Silver prices rose in the European market on Monday, maintaining their gains for the fourth consecutive day, heading towards touching a 14-year high, amid strong flows and demand for the white metal.

The price increase is supported by the decline in the US dollar in the foreign exchange market, following less aggressive comments from one of the key Federal Reserve members regarding the future of US interest rates.

The Price

• Silver prices today: Silver rose by 1.0% to $38.55, from an opening price of $38.17, after recording a low of $38.10.

• At Friday’s settlement, silver prices rose by about 0.1%, marking the third consecutive daily gain, supported by the weakening of the US dollar.

• Silver prices lost 0.6% last week, marking the first weekly loss in the last three weeks, due to correction and profit-taking from the 14-year high of $39.13 per ounce.

Strong Demand

Silver prices have risen by about 7% since the beginning of July, heading toward a third consecutive monthly gain, thanks to strong industrial demand for the white metal, alongside a surge in retail demand, as the metal is considered undervalued compared to gold, which is trading near its historical highs.

Industrial Demand

Silver is widely used in green technology industries, such as solar panels, electric vehicles, and electronics, due to its excellent conductive properties.

Global forecasts suggest that the solar energy sector could consume 30% of annual silver production by 2030, as each solar panel requires about 20 grams of silver.

Global industrial demand has already reached record levels, and it is expected to reach 710 million ounces by 2025, which could further drive silver prices higher in the second half of this year.

Chinese Demand

Recent positive data from Beijing has renewed hopes of economic recovery in China, which will reflect in improved demand and the withdrawal of metals and commodities in the world's largest consumer.

In recent months, Chinese authorities have implemented a series of financial and monetary stimulus measures to support the economy, the world’s second-largest economy, in an attempt to recover from economic stagnation.

Retail Demand

Retail traders, in search of financial assets to hedge against the risks associated with the current shift in global central bank policies toward monetary easing, view silver as the most cost-effective and undervalued asset at the moment.

The current rise in silver prices comes with retail traders' awareness that the white metal is moving further away from its real value compared to gold, which is trading near its historical levels.

The US Dollar

The US Dollar Index fell by 0.6% on Monday, continuing its losses for the second consecutive session, moving away from a three-week high, reflecting the ongoing decline in the US dollar against a basket of major and minor currencies.

Aside from profit-taking, the US dollar continues to decline following comments from some Federal Reserve officials regarding the potential for a rate cut in July.

Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller stated on Friday that he prefers a rate cut at the July meeting, as he believes tariffs are likely to have a limited effect on inflation.

Waller added that the underlying data "does not indicate a healthy private-sector labor market," and that the Fed "needs to get ahead" of any potential slowdown in employment.

Waller's comments came amid near-daily criticism from US President Donald Trump toward Fed Chairman Jerome Powell for hesitating to cut interest rates.