According to an IDC report reviewed by Reuters, Nvidia accounted for 34% of China's data-center AI accelerator market during the first half of 2026.
Nvidia shipped approximately 678,000 accelerators, representing a 44% year-over-year decline.
Huawei shipped approximately 572,000 accelerators, reaching a 28% market share.
Total AI accelerator shipments reached approximately 2.008 million units, while non-GPU accelerator shipments rose nearly 80% and exceeded GPU shipments by volume.
These are IDC market estimates reported by Reuters, not independently audited company shipment disclosures. Reuters
Source: Reuters — IDC China AI-chip market analysis, October 13
Why it matters strategically
The findings reinforce an important distinction between technological leadership and market access.
Nvidia may retain advantages in high-performance AI computing, but export restrictions limit its ability to serve some Chinese customers.
Domestic competitors benefit from both government support and the need for locally available alternatives.
The reported increase in non-GPU accelerators is particularly interesting.
It suggests that customers are increasingly adopting architectures optimized for particular workloads rather than relying exclusively on general-purpose GPUs.
However, shipment volumes do not establish equivalent computing performance, software maturity, or economic efficiency.
