DeepSeek partners with Huawei to develop programming tools for Ascend AI chips

DeepSeek partners with Huawei to develop programming tools for Ascend AI chips

BEIJING — Chinese AI firm DeepSeek said on Wednesday it has partnered with Huawei Technologies to develop programming tools for Huawei’s Ascend AI chips, the latest sign of Chinese tech firms deepening ties as they seek alternatives to Nvidia’s ecosystem.

In a post on its official WeChat account, DeepSeek said it was open-sourcing infrastructure for Huawei’s Ascend platform, including compute and communication libraries. It highlighted TileLang, a high-level open-source programming language for AI chips that the company says offers “a simpler programming model” than Nvidia’s CUDA, improving development efficiency and simplifying code logic.

“To build a new generation of independent, self-controlled GPU software ecosystem, the first priority is establishing a high-level language that is universal, easy to program, and still capable of reaching the hardware’s full performance potential,” DeepSeek said. “TileLang was created precisely to meet this need,” the company added.

DeepSeek said Huawei provided full support in developing the infrastructure, and the two companies jointly advanced a “supernode” based on 128 Ascend 950 chips, optimising computation and communication.

The announcement came two weeks after Huawei unveiled its next generation of AI processors and supernode computing systems and said it expected its AI systems to be widely used for model training next year.

Sources:

• Reuters, “DeepSeek partners with Huawei to develop chip programming tools, reducing reliance on Nvidia”, 30 September 2026: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/deepseek-partners-with-huawei-develop-chip-programming-tools-reducing-reliance-2026-09-30/
• The Manila Times, “AI firm Deep Seek partners with Huawei”, 1 October 2026: https://www.manilatimes.net/2026/10/01/business/foreign-business/ai-firm-deep-seek-partners-with-huawei/2436455