China seeks to train frontier AI models on domestic hardware by 2028

China has a $295 billion plan to stop relying on Nvidia. The country aims to build and interconnect a national network of AI data centers by 2028, with a mandate that at least 80% of the technology, including the AI chips doing the heavy lifting, comes from domestic suppliers like Huawei. The plan, the money, and the mandate China plans to spend roughly 2 trillion yuan, approximately $295 billion, building out AI infrastructure over the next few years. That’s embedded in the country’s upcoming 15th Five-Year Plan period, which frames AI compute independence as a strategic national objective by 2028. High-level directives from Chinese leadership are pushing for what officials describe as an “independent and controllable” AI ecosystem, aimed at ensuring that tightening US export controls can’t kneecap China’s AI ambitions. Huawei sits at the center of this push. Analyst projections suggest the company could manufacture 3.3 million Ascend-series accelerators by 2028, potentially covering more than half of China’s domestic AI compute demand. Progress, but not at the frontier Zhipu AI completed training of its multimodal model GLM-Image entirely on Huawei Ascend chips in January 2026, d...