Guangdong touts Huawei chips and HarmonyOS to outrun the shadow of the DeepSeek eclipse
· Yahoo TechGuangdong has named Huawei Technologies' artificial intelligence chips and HarmonyOS operating system as flagship achievements in China's drive for technological self-sufficiency.
The push by China's wealthiest province - whose gross domestic product is larger than that of South Korea - to highlight home-grown innovation came as local governments faced mounting peer pressure to support Beijing's strategic goals.
Guangdong, which includes the tech hub of Shenzhen, suffered a bruised ego earlier this year when DeepSeek, the country's AI poster child, turned out to be based in Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, even though its founder Liang Wenfeng hailed from Guangdong.
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At a press conference hosted by the provincial government on Wednesday, officials responsible for technology development reeled off a long list of figures to underscore that Guangdong was keeping pace with - and in some areas leading - China's science and technology race.
Wang Yueqin, head of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and Technology, said the province had remained China's top innovation hub for the ninth consecutive year in 2025.
Wang cited Huawei's Ascend 910C chips, rolled out earlier this year to help reduce China's reliance on Nvidia's products, as a key example.
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The processors had helped the country "overcome foreign embargoes", she said, in an apparent reference to US export controls on advanced chips.
The Ascend 910C is a powerful AI accelerator that delivers around 60 per cent of the performance of Nvidia's H100 on reference tasks, according to a DeepSeek study.
Guangdong suffered a bruised ego earlier this year when DeepSeek, the country's AI poster child, turned out to be based in Hangzhou in Zhejiang province. Photo: Shutterstock alt=Guangdong suffered a bruised ego earlier this year when DeepSeek, the country's AI poster child, turned out to be based in Hangzhou in Zhejiang province. Photo: Shutterstock>
She also pointed to a humanoid robot capable of automatically swapping its own batteries - an apparent reference to UBTech Robotics' Walker S2 - and two electronic design automation (EDA) tools launched in October by a unit of chip design software firm SiCarrier as further breakthroughs.
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Wang said innovation ties within the Greater Bay Area, which covers Hong Kong and Macau, had deepened, noting that Guangdong had provided 600 million yuan (US$84.5 million) in research funding to the two special administrative regions.
At the same event, Qiu Jing, deputy head of the provincial Human Resources and Social Security Department, said Guangdong had attracted more than 27,000 postdoctoral researchers between 2021 and 2025, the largest intake in mainland China.
Researchers and engineers across the province have also stepped up their patenting efforts.
Since 2021, Guangdong has granted 635,800 invention patents and filed 116,900 international patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, both the highest totals in the country, according to Guo Yuhua, deputy chief of the Guangdong Administration for Market Regulation, which also oversees intellectual property.
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