<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">For the first time, China has included artificial intelligence chips in its official “secure and reliable” technology assessments, expanding the scope of a state-backed drive to adopt domestic alternatives to Western products. The China Information Technology Security Evaluation Centre and the National Secrecy Science and Technology Evaluation Centre released the latest batch of assessments on Tuesday evening, creating a new category for “AI training and inference chips”. The certifications were valid for three years, according to the announcement. As the country’s official assessment bodies for information security and secrecy-related technologies, their approvals are widely viewed as the definitive procurement catalogue for party and government agencies, central state-owned enterprises and other state-linked customers under the Xinchuang initiative. Xinchuang, which translates as information technology application innovation, is Beijing’s long-running campaign to purge foreign hardware and software from sensitive and strategically important information systems. The move highlights how China’s technology replacement drive is pivoting towards AI infrastructure. Initially focused on phasing out US suppliers like Intel and Advanced Micro Devices for central processing units (CPUs) and Oracle for databases, Beijing is now targeting Nvidia and other foreign suppliers of AI computing power. The push has gained urgency following successive rounds of US export controls that restricted Chinese access to advanced graphics processing units (GPUs).  Last week, the National Development and Reform Commission said China would guide domestic large language models to increase adaptation to home-grown computing chips, while promoting the integration of AI with the broader economy and society. The newly certified chip products include Huawei Technologies’ Ascend 310 and Ascend 910, Alibaba Group Holding’s T-Head Zhenwu M530 and M890, as well as GPUs from Biren Technology, Hygon Information Technology, Iluvatar CoreX, MetaX and Moore Threads. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. Notably absent from the list were two of China’s most prominent AI chip developers: Cambricon Technologies and Baidu-backed Kunlunxin. A person familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly, said the exclusion from the list could affect business opportunities in some procurement scenarios with Xinchuang requirements. However, each company can decide whether to submit their products for testing, as different chips have different market positionings, the person said. If submitted for assessment, products can only be added to the list after passing tests under the Anke V3.0 requirements. Anke is shorthand for “anquan kekao”, or “secure and reliable” in Chinese, a term often used interchangeably with Xinchuang in China’s domestic technology replacement campaign. Cambricon and Kunlunxin did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. The Xinchuang initiative started to accelerate in government procurement around 2020, before expanding after 2022 into sectors such as finance, energy, telecommunications and other state-linked industries. The secure and reliable assessment list is one of the certification mechanisms that supports Beijing’s localisation push. China first published such assessment results in December 2023, covering CPUs, operating systems and centralised databases. </div>

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<p>China has expanded its technology replacement initiative to include AI chips in its official assessments, marking a shift towards domestic alternatives to Western products. The new category for 'AI training and inference chips' was introduced by the China Information Technology Security Evaluation Centre. This move aims to phase out foreign suppliers like Nvidia amid US export controls. Certified products include chips from Huawei and Alibaba, while notable developers like Cambricon and Kunlunxin were excluded from the list, potentially impacting their business opportunities.</p>

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China expands tech replacement drive to include AI chips amid US curbs