The US-China chip war is far from over. Huawei remains a central target, especially over its use of advanced AI chips like Ascend. And Africa, once again, is stuck in the middle.
Earlier this month, the US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a blunt warning: using Huawei’s Ascend AI chips anywhere in the world may violate US export laws.
Not just selling the Ascend AI chips. Not even building them. Just using them. Anywhere in the world. Congrats: You might be breaking US law and not even know it.
The Huawei AI chip war
Apparently, Washington is claiming jurisdiction over the use of Huawei’s Ascend AI chips (even in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria) because the chips were built using US-origin tools.
So, anyone using them with knowledge of how they were made could be sanctioned. Lovely.
Note from the editor:
I’ve been covering US export controls and the Huawei saga since 2019, when reporting on Trump’s tech war unexpectedly boosted my visibility as a tech journalist. While I regularly attend Huawei’s media events and briefings (and I’ve had a front-row seat to their expansion across cloud and telecoms in South Africa) this article wasn’t commissioned, sponsored or even suggested by Huawei or any affiliated partner. When global politics interfere with local progress, someone has to unpack what it means for the startups, students, researchers, and operators building Africa’s future on these systems. This is that unpacking.– Cheryl Kahla
Let’s dive in.
The US-China trade war
Let’s rewind a bit. In 2019, the US added Huawei to its Entity List, at the time claiming that Huawei had ties to the Chinese military.
I covered it extensively at the time. First, Trump was worried that the Chinese government was using Huawei to spy on US networks. So, Google revoked Huawei’s Android licence.
The launch of the Mate X was delayed, and Huawei began working on its own version of the Google Play Store.
Over the coming years, the US tightened restrictions and blocked Huawei from accessing key components like semiconductors and 5G parts.
In response, China ramped up investment in domestic chip production and pushed its dual circulation economic strategy.
US export controls explained
In 2022, the Biden Administration began imposing chip export controls, effectively banning the export of advanced chips (used in AI and supercomputing) and chipmaking tools to China.
And every time companies found a workaround, the US would just tighten the rules.
But it’s backfiring now…
Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang says the export controls have cost companies billions. Nvidia itself lost $5.5 billion this quarter because of the expanded bans on chips like the China-targeted H20.
And while the US is cracking down, non-US companies are stepping up and filling this massive gap in AI tech.
China is not backing down
Meanwhile, China’s not slowing down, pouring money into its own chip industry to become self-reliant. Huawei is leading the charge, with phones powered by Chinese-made chips, and Ascend processors power large AI systems like DeepSeek.
China’s Ministry of Commerce also responded to the US’s move with its own threats of legal action. It said the US policy is discriminatory and harmful to global markets.
Companies that comply with US restrictions might face the wrath of China’s commerce ministry, legal system, or worse, its blacklist.
So now African businesses are stuck between two giants, each threatening penalties depending on which side you lean toward.
The message? Choose wisely… But it’s not so simple for Africa.
But why the sudden export controls? Well….
Hello, Huawei Ascend chips
Huawei’s Ascend chips power AI training clusters, smart city CCTV, cloud services, and government data centres across the continent.
If you’re running on Huawei Cloud in South Africa, there’s a good chance you’re already touching Ascend silicon. Especially if you’re using AI workloads or models like PanGu.
Fun Fact:
PanGu is Huawei’s multimodal large language model, first introduced in July 2023 (not to be confused with Pangu from the Chinese mythology – a primordial character related to the creation of the world.
That means South African businesses, universities, and telcos could be exposed to new compliance risks they weren’t tracking a month ago.
The US has made it clear: even using Huawei’s chips could count as violating US law, thanks to a rule called General Prohibition 10.
Huawei in Africa
Huawei’s tech powers most of our networks.
It is powering 70% of the continent’s 4G infrastructure. It also happens to be one of the cheapest, fastest ways to get AI, cloud, and smart infrastructure running here.
Kenya’s government cloud runs on Huawei. In Nigeria, students are learning on Ascend-based kits. Closer to home, South Africa’s Huawei Cloud region continues to grow.
Unplugging now? Not so realistic.
And yet, the longer this chip war escalates, the more pressure there’ll be to diversify or to explain why we’re still working with Huawei.
Africa’s sovereignty is the real issue
Lezbehonest… None of this is really about chips.
It’s about control.
China wants to expand its AI footprint and the US doesn’t want Chinese tech embedded in critical infrastructure.
And Africa? We just want fast networks, powerful compute, affordable cloud services, and a digital economy that actually works, please and thank you.
But every time we rely on one side too much, we risk being cut off by the other.
That’s what digital sovereignty means: having the power to make our own decisions. To build systems that won’t collapse the minute the US someone else throws a tantrum updates their sanctions list.
And sure, some African governments are already investing in local data centres, open-source tech, and multi-vendor networks.
But it’s slow. And expensive.
And Huawei is still the fastest path to AI at scale.
So what now?
There’s no easy answer.
Huawei isn’t going anywhere.
Neither is US pressure.
And while the chip cold war plays out, the consequences land squarely on African soil, inside African servers, on African infrastructure.
And we can’t afford to be caught off guard.
