China's Bold $40B Chip Investment Challenges Nvidia, Signals Resilience Against US Embargo

China's $40 billion state fund to boost the chip industry is a massive shoutout regarding the country's plans not to yield to the U.S. semiconductor embargo that barred the country from acquiring Nvidia Corp NVDA and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc's AMD sophisticated artificial intelligence chips.

Also Read: Chinese Vendors Bypass US Embargo to Supply High-end Nvidia A100 AI Chips: Report Reveals Hidden Market Dynamics

The country eyes a record 300 billion yuan ($41 billion), with one main area of investment being equipment for chip manufacturing.

Meanwhile, China's Huawei Technologies and China's top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), have built an advanced 7-nanometer processor to power its latest smartphone, implying China's headway to build a domestic chip ecosystem.

SMIC's Kirin 9000s chip powered Huawei's Mate 60 Pro.

Since 2019, the U.S. has prohibited Huawei's access to chipmaking tools essential for producing the most advanced handset models.

Baidu, Inc BIDU announced over ten new AI-based applications on Tuesday, just days after mass commercializing the ChatGPT-like Ernie bot.

Baidu also showcased generative AI-based products that could assist with traffic management, financial research, and coal mine logistics.

Nearly 10,000 businesses are using Baidu's Qianfan cloud platform each month per the company. 

Over 6 million users have used an AI-powered tool that sits inside its Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL Google Drive-like cloud product. The AI assistant can search documents, summarize and translate text, and create content.

Nvidia chief Jensen Huang and other U.S. chipmakers have warned against immense damage to U.S. tech from its semiconductor chip embargo with China, one of their biggest and most important markets.