Chinese AI chip manufacturers have reportedly raised prices after a shortage of high-bandwidth memory tightened supply, with Huawei, Cambricon, Muxi and Tianzuo Zhixin among the companies said to be affected.

Huawei has raised the listed price of its Ascend 950DT accelerator card to more than 250,000 yuan, according to the report. That represents an increase of 20% to 50% from two months earlier. Prices for earlier Huawei products, including the Ascend 950PR and 910C, were also reported to have risen by about 30%.

Cambricon has also increased the listed price of its planned 690 chip by 20% to 30%, while Muxi and Tianzuo Zhixin were described as implementing similar price hikes. The report tied the increases to a shortage of HBM, a key component for AI accelerators, as well as higher procurement costs in the gray market.

The reported supply pressure comes alongside U.S. export controls, which were cited as another factor behind the higher costs. Together, those constraints are adding to the expense of building AI computing capacity in China, where domestic chipmakers have been positioned as alternatives for local demand.

Huawei, Cambricon and the other named companies had not commented on the matter, according to the report. No further details were disclosed on volumes, delivery timelines or whether the higher listed prices apply broadly across customer segments.

Why It Matters

The reported price increases highlight a hardware bottleneck at the center of the AI supply chain. Even when domestic accelerator design capacity exists, access to advanced memory can still determine how quickly AI infrastructure is deployed and at what cost.

For markets tracking AI-linked digital asset narratives, the development matters because compute economics remain a foundational part of the broader AI trade. Rising hardware input costs could influence enterprise spending, domestic substitution efforts and the pace at which AI infrastructure expands in one of the world’s largest technology markets.