Meet China’s ‘little Nvidia,’ the AI chip maker that Chinese investors are betting big on to challenge America’s Nvidia

Chinese AI chip designer Cambricon Technologies has emerged as Beijing’s most promising domestic challenger to Nvidia, with its stock price doubling this month to reach a market capitalization of Rmb580 billion ($81 billion). The surge reflects investor confidence that the less-than-decade-old company could become the leading supplier of AI chips to power China’s homegrown artificial intelligence models, including those developed by DeepSeek, the Chinese AI champion that stunned Silicon Valley earlier this year.

Cambricon’s remarkable transformation from near-collapse to market darling illustrates China’s broader push for technological self-sufficiency in the face of US export restrictions.