DeepSeek plans large Huawei chip order for new Inner Mongolia data centre

DeepSeek is reportedly planning a large purchase of Huawei Ascend AI chips for a new one-gigawatt data centre in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, expected to start partial operations by late 2027 or early 2028. This move aligns with China's strategy to shift energy-intensive computing westward and reflects a shift away from Nvidia hardware due to export restrictions. DeepSeek is also developing its own AI inference chip with SMIC, indicating a potential future transition from Huawei chips.