Russia's Sberbank wants Chinese chips for its GigaChat AI in the face of Western sanctions — faces a long wait behind ByteDance and Alibaba

Sberbank says it wants Chinese AI chips, likely Huawei’s Ascend 950 family, to support its GigaChat model.

The move reflects Russia’s push to replace blocked U.S. hardware as Western sanctions squeeze access to advanced semiconductors.

But supply is tight: Huawei chips are already heavily booked by major Chinese buyers such as ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent.

Russia also lacks competitive domestic AI hardware, making Sberbank dependent on foreign suppliers for near-term AI capacity.