Most recent
Gavekal Technologies: Chips
Alibaba Has A New AI Chip
Laila Khawaja
2 Apr 2026
Alibaba unveils 5nm RISC-V CPU; Google TurboQuant and the memory sell-off; Nikon eyes China market opportunities.
Gavekal Technologies: Chips
China’s AI Compute Shortage
Laila Khawaja
26 Mar 2026
Chinese cloud service providers and artificial-intelligence-model companies are raising prices sharply amid surging inference demand, increasing hardware costs, and limited access to advanced chips. Tighter US export enforcement is expected to have a big impact on the grey-market flows of Nvidia chips into China, while the availability of export-compliant chips remains uncertain amid supply chain and regulatory uncertainties. While this creates opportunities for domestic chips, scaling is limited by capacity constraints and compliance risks. As a result, the AI compute shortage is unlikely to ease in the near term, benefiting firms that control scarce compute resources.
More research
The Electric Vehicle Consolidation Challenge
China’s electric vehicle industry is going through a soft patch that signals the start of a consolidation phase that will make the top players stronger, both at home and abroad. In this edition of Gavekal Technologies Briefing, we lay out the key EV trends for this year.
Another Round Of Analog Chip Price Hikes
Chinese analog makers expect profitability lift; AI compute and cloud rental prices rise in China; Japan uses US and Chinese tech for humanoids; China’s chip export rises on memory surge.
China Targets Full-Chain Chip Breakthrough
China targets full-chain chip breakthrough; Nvidia’s B300 in high demand in China; China’s new national M&A fund.
Will AI Supercharge The China Shock?
Most coverage of US-China AI competition assumes that the two countries are in the same race to build the best frontier AI model. But China is running a different race—to deploy artificial intelligence through its massive industrial system. The chances are that smart automation will entrench China’s dominance of global manufacturing, even if no Chinese AI model ever matches the top model from the US.
China Enriches Export Control Toolkit
Beijing debuts export control “watch list”; Chinese firms accelerate auto chip self-sufficiency; National IC Fund III invests in humanoids; implications of the US strike on Iran.
Washington’s AI Anxiety Rises
Trump resists calls for tougher restrictions on China tech; ByteDance expands AI hires in the US; India’s AI summit had little China; Xiaomi doubles down on indigenous efforts.