China Mobile Invests $22M in Domestic Compute Platform Powered by Huawei Ascend

China Mobile Guangdong has secured a 155 million yuan ($22 million) contract to develop a computing power service support platform, exclusively using domestically developed hardware and software. The project represents one of China's largest deployments of homegrown computing infrastructure and excludes any imported equipment.

At the core of the platform are Huawei's Ascend 910C AI processors, designed for high-performance computing workloads. The Ascend 910C chips, part of Huawei's Ascend computing portfolio, will be integrated via Huawei's proprietary Tiangong architecture and Lingqu interconnect bus technology. This combination delivers 160 exaFLOPS of FP16 computing performance—equivalent to processing 160 quintillion floating-point operations per second—optimized for AI training and inference tasks.

The storage subsystem combines Huawei's high-performance OceanStor A800 all-flash arrays with high-capacity OceanStor Pacific 9550 distributed storage units. This hybrid approach enables deep hardware-software integration while balancing speed and scalability. The OceanStor A800 provides low-latency access for active data, while the Pacific 9550 handles large-scale cold storage, creating a tiered architecture suitable for diverse computational workloads.

This contract reflects accelerating commercialization of China's independent computing technologies. By mandating domestic-only components, the project demonstrates confidence in local alternatives to foreign hardware. The Ascend ecosystem has matured significantly since US trade restrictions intensified China's push for technological self-reliance. Huawei's suite of technologies—from processors to interconnects and storage—now provides an integrated stack capable of supporting large-scale enterprise deployments.

Industry analysts note the project's scale validates China's progress in high-performance computing infrastructure. The 160 exaFLOPS benchmark positions the platform among competitive AI training systems globally. As Chinese enterprises increasingly adopt domestic solutions for critical infrastructure, ecosystems like Huawei's Ascend are likely to see expanded deployment in telecom, cloud services, and government applications where data sovereignty and supply chain security are prioritized.