Chinese companies are ramping up homegrown AI chips, even if Nvidia is coming back

China is focusing on large language models in the artificial intelligence space. Blackdovfx | Istock | Production of Chinese chips could ramp up this year, as executives at the country's biggest tech companies look to deploy more homegrown technology — as it's reported U.S. chip giant Nvidia could return. On Wednesday, internet titan Tencent suggested that production of Chinese homegrown chips could ramp up this year, while e-commerce giant Alibaba discussed how it is expanding its self-developed semiconductor usage. The comments underscore how, in the absence of Nvidia's technology due to export restrictions, China has pushed its domestically developed chips in the search for self-sufficiency to power its AI ambitions. China chip ramp Tencent Chief Strategy Officer James Mitchell said the company will have a "substantial increase" in capital expenditure, especially in the second half of the year, as more China-designed chips become "available to us month by month." Mitchell also said that the supply of China-designed graphics processing units (GPUs) would "progressively" ramp up through the year. He also said that China-designed chips were seeing more supply from manufacturing facilities within China as well as "neighbouring countries." China has a swathe of local chip players that have ramped up activity by going public and launching products. …