Huawei is telling some customers to source memory for its AI chips themselves, according to a report from The Information. The company plans to launch the Ascend 960DT early next year, which it says will double the performance of its current chips.
Huawei's Chinese suppliers cannot produce enough High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM), the report says. U.S. export rules block direct purchases from Samsung and SK Hynix, which together control over 80 percent of the global market.
According to the source, smugglers have found a workaround. They bundle HBM with cheap server processors whose performance falls below the export threshold, then ship the packages to China through Hong Kong. Workshops in China then separate the memory chips from the processors. The report describes the process as fragile with a high error rate, but says the margins make it worthwhile.
A broker in Shenzhen told the source that prices for smuggled HBM3E memory have risen from a few hundred dollars to around $4,000 per unit in one year. The report states that each AI chip needs six to eight units, which would put the memory cost at up to $32,000 per chip.
The report also says the black market draws on other sources, including older Nvidia GPUs stripped for parts and excess inventory from chip designers who scrapped projects or