Inside the wild supercomputer arms race where Huawei, Nvidia, and AMD battle to power trillion-parameter AI breakthroughs

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Huawei stacks thousands of NPUs to show brute-force supercomputing dominance
Nvidia delivers polish, balance, and proven AI performance that enterprises trust
AMD teases radical networking fabrics to push scalability into new territory

The race to build the most powerful AI supercomputing systems is intensifying, and major brands now want a flagship cluster that proves it can handle the next generation of trillion-parameter models and data-heavy research.

Huawei’s recently-announced Atlas 950 SuperPoD, Nvidia’s DGX SuperPOD, and AMD’s upcoming Instinct MegaPod each represent different approaches to solving the same problem.

They all aim to deliver massive compute, memory, and bandwidth in one scalable package, powering AI tools for generative models, drug discovery, autonomous systems, and data-driven science. But how do they compare?

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Huawei Ascend 950 vs Nvidia H200 vs AMD MI300 Instinct
Category	Huawei Ascend 950DT	NVIDIA H200	AMD Radeon Instinct MI300
Chip Family / Name	Ascend 950 series	H200 (GH100, Hopper)	Radeon Instinct MI300 (Aqua Vanjaram)
Architecture	Proprietary Huawei AI accelerator	Hopper GPU architecture	CDNA 3.0
Process / Foundry	Not yet publicly confirmed	5 nm (TSMC)	5 nm (TSMC)
Transistors	Not specified	80 billion	153 billion
Die Size	Not specified	814 mm²	1017 mm²
Optimization	Decode-stage inference & model training	General-purpose AI & HPC acceleration	AI/HPC compute acceleration
Supported Formats	FP8, MXFP8, MXFP4, HiF8	FP16, FP32, FP64 (via Tensor/CUDA cores)	FP16, FP32, FP64
Peak Performance	1 PFLOPS (FP8 / MXFP8 / HiF8), 2 PFLOPS (MXFP4)	FP16: 241.3 TFLOPS, FP32: 60.3 TFLOPS, FP64: 30.2 TFLOPS	FP16: 383 TFLOPS, FP32/FP64: 47.87 TFLOPS
Vector Processing	SIMD + SIMT hybrid, 128-byte memory access granularity	SIMT with CUDA and Tensor cores	SIMT + Matrix/Tensor cores
Memory Type	HiZQ 2.0 proprietary HBM (for decode & training variant)	HBM3e	HBM3
Memory Capacity	144 GB	141 GB	128 GB
Memory Bandwidth	4 TB/s	4.89 TB/s	6.55 TB/s
Memory Bus Width	Not specified	6144-bit	8192-bit
L2 Cache	Not specified	50 MB	Not specified
Interconnect Bandwidth	2 TB/s	Not specified	Not specified
Form Factors	Cards, SuperPoD servers	PCIe 5.0 x16 (server/HPC only)	PCIe 5.0 x16 (compute card)
Base / Boost Clock	Not specified	1365 / 1785 MHz	1000 / 1700 MHz
Cores / Shaders	Not specified	CUDA: 16,896, Tensor: 528 (4th Gen)	14,080 shaders, 220 CUs, 880 Tensor cores
Power (TDP)	Not specified	600 W	600 W
Bus Interface	Not specified	PCIe 5.0 x16	PCIe 5.0 x16
Outputs	None (server use)	None (server/HPC only)	None (compute card)
Target Scenarios	Large-scale training & decode inference (LLMs, generative AI)	AI training, HPC, data centers	AI/HPC compute acceleration
Release / Availability	Q4 2026	Nov 18, 2024	Jan 4, 2023

The philosophy behind each system

What makes these systems fascinating is how they reflect the strategies of their makers.

Huawei is leaning heavily on its Ascend 950 chips and a custom interconnect called UnifiedBus 2.0 – the emphasis is on building out compute density at an extraordinary scale, then networking it together seamlessly.

Nvidia has spent years refining its DGX line and now offers the DGX SuperPOD as a turnkey solution, integrating GPUs, CPUs, networking, and storage into a balanced environment for enterprises and research labs.

AMD is preparing to join the conversation with the Instinct MegaPod, which aims to scale around its future MI500 accelerators and a brand-new networking fabric called UALink.

While Huawei talks about exaFLOP levels of performance today, Nvidia highlights a stable, battle-tested platform, and AMD pitches itself as the challenger offering superior scalability down the road.

At the heart of these clusters are heavy-duty processors built to deliver immense computational power and handle data-intensive AI and HPC workloads.

Huawei’s Atlas 950 SuperPoD is designed around 8,192 Ascend 950 NPUs, with reported peaks of 8 exaFLOPS in FP8 and 16 exaFLOPS in FP16 – so it is clearly aimed at handling both training and inference at an enormous scale.

Nvidia’s DGX SuperPOD, built on DGX A100 nodes, delivers a different flavor of performance – with 20 nodes containing a total of 160 A100 GPUs, it looks smaller in terms of chip count.

However, each GPU is optimized for mixed precision AI tasks and paired with high-speed InfiniBand to keep latency low.

AMD’s MegaPod is still on the horizon, but early details suggest it will pack 256 Instinct MI500 GPUs alongside 64 Zen 7 “Verano” CPUs.

While its raw compute numbers are not yet published, AMD’s goal is to rival or exceed Nvidia’s efficiency and scale, especially as it uses next-generation PCIe Gen 6 and 3-nanometer networking ASICs.

Feeding thousands of accelerators requires staggering amounts of memory and interconnect speed.

Huawei claims the Atlas 950 SuperPoD carries more than a petabyte of memory, with a total system bandwidth of 16.3 petabytes per second.

This kind of throughput is designed to keep data moving without bottlenecks across its racks of NPUs.

Nvidia’s DGX SuperPOD does not attempt to match such headline numbers, instead relying on 52.5 terabytes of system memory and 49 terabytes of high-bandwidth GPU memory, coupled with InfiniBand links of up to 200Gbps per node.

The focus here is on predictable performance for workloads that enterprises already run.

AMD, meanwhile, is targeting the bleeding edge with its Vulcano switch ASICs offering 102.4Tbps capacity and 800Gbps per tray external throughput.

Combined with UALink and Ultra Ethernet, this suggests a system that will surpass current networking limits once it launches in 2027.

One of the biggest differences between the three contenders lies in how they are physically built.

Huawei’s design allows for expansion from a single SuperPoD to half a million Ascend chips in a SuperCluster.

There are also claims that an Atlas 950 configuration could involve more than a hundred cabinets spread over a thousand square meters.

Nvidia’s DGX SuperPOD takes a more compact approach, with its 20 nodes integrated in a cluster style that enterprises can deploy without needing a stadium-sized data hall.

AMD’s MegaPod splits the difference, with two racks of compute trays plus one dedicated networking rack, showing that its architecture is centered around a modular but powerful layout.

In terms of availability, Nvidia’s DGX SuperPOD is already on the market, Huawei’s Atlas 950 SuperPoD is expected in late 2026, and AMD’s MegaPod is planned for 2027.

That said, these chips are fighting very different battles under the same banner of AI supercomputing supremacy.

Huawei’s Atlas 950 SuperPoD is a show of brute force, stacking thousands of NPUs and jaw-dropping bandwidth to dominate at scale, but its size and proprietary design may make it harder for outsiders to adopt.

Nvidia’s DGX SuperPOD looks smaller on paper, yet it wins on polish and reliability, offering a proven platform that enterprises and research labs can plug in today without waiting for promises.

AMD’s MegaPod, still in development, has the makings of a disruptor, with its MI500 accelerators and radical new networking fabric that could tilt the balance once it arrives, but until then, it is a challenger talking big.

Via Huawei, Nvidia, TechPowerUp

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