Alibaba Unveils Zhenwu M890 AI Chip With Triple the Power of Its Predecessor
CNBC reported Wednesday that Alibaba has unveiled its next-generation Zhenwu M890 chip, claiming the new processor delivers three times the computational performance of the existing Zhenwu 810E. The announcement was made in Chongqing, China, arriving at a moment when rival Nvidia continues to face significant obstacles getting its most advanced chips into the Chinese market.
A Significant Leap in Raw Hardware Capability
The Zhenwu M890 arrives with notable technical specifications. Alibaba says the chip carries 144 GB of GPU memory and supports interchip bandwidth of 800 GB per second. Those figures represent a meaningful step forward in local AI compute capacity. The company also confirmed it has already shipped 560,000 Zhenwu units to more than 400 customers spanning 20 different industries.
Also Read: Nvidia Faces Fresh Export Controls as US Restricts Advanced Chip Sales
A New Language Model Joins the Lineup
Beyond the hardware announcement, Alibaba disclosed that its next large language model is close to launch. The forthcoming model, named Qwen3.7-Max, will succeed the company’s existing Qwen series of AI models. No specific release date was provided. The dual announcement signals that Alibaba Chief Executive Eddie Wu and his team are pushing simultaneously on both the infrastructure and application layers of artificial intelligence. That strategy mirrors efforts by major US hyperscalers building proprietary silicon alongside their software products.
Background: China’s Push for Homegrown AI Infrastructure
China’s drive to develop domestic AI hardware has accelerated sharply since Washington tightened semiconductor export controls targeting advanced chips. Earlier this year, Alibaba and China Telecom jointly announced plans to open a southern China data center running entirely on Alibaba-built processors. That facility represents one of the more concrete examples of Chinese internet giants putting their own silicon to work at scale. Beijing has made clear it wants domestic cloud and AI infrastructure to be less dependent on foreign chipmakers. Alibaba’s growing Zhenwu customer base, now exceeding 400 organisations, suggests commercial traction is building alongside the political imperative.
What This Means for the Competitive Landscape
Alibaba’s hardware push places it alongside Huawei as one of the few Chinese firms capable of fielding proprietary AI chips at meaningful scale. Nvidia’s difficulties securing export licences for its H20 and higher-tier chips into China have opened a window for domestic alternatives. Whether Alibaba’s technology can fully close the performance gap with leading US silicon remains an open question. However, the M890’s specifications and growing deployment numbers suggest the gap is narrowing faster than many observers expected.
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