How Huawei Is Beating Chip Restrictions with Smarter AI Software

Image obtained on Flickr

Huawei just introduced a new tool called Unified Cache Manager (UCM) — and it’s a big deal for China’s tech scene. Instead of relying on powerful foreign-made chips that are now harder to get because of U.S. export bans, Huawei found a way to make its AI systems faster using software.

What does UCM do? It tells your computer’s memory how to organize data more efficiently. That’s important because AI models work best when they can quickly access large amounts of information. During Huawei’s tests, UCM helped reduce delay time by up to 90% and made systems run 22 times faster.

The Chip Problem

To understand why Huawei’s UCM matters, you need to know about HBM—a special kind of memory that helps AI chips work better and faster. These chips are made by companies like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron, mostly based in South Korea and the U.S.

Beijing has asked Washington to relax its chip export rules, but no big changes have happened yet.

The problem? The U.S. has restricted the export of these chips to China, so Huawei and others can’t easily buy them. This is part of the tech tensions between the U.S. and China, as both sides try to stay ahead in AI and semiconductors.

By improving how existing memory is used, Huawei’s new tool could reduce its need for these banned chips.

Open Source and Local Alternatives

Huawei isn’t keeping UCM to itself. The company plans to make it open-source this September, meaning other Chinese tech firms can use it too. This helps grow China’s own AI ecosystem.

And it’s not just UCM. Huawei also plans to open up its Compute Architecture for Neural Networks (CANN) — its version of Nvidia’s popular CUDA software — to developers. Together, these tools are meant to reduce China’s dependence on U.S. tech.

What Else Is China Doing?

Huawei is not alone. Other Chinese companies, like DeepSeek, are also finding creative ways to work with limited chip resources. At the same time, local chipmakers like Yangtze Memory and Changxin Memory are trying to catch up by building their own advanced memory chips.

But they still have a long way to go. Most are working on HBM2, while foreign competitors are already moving on to HBM4, which is much faster.

Tech and Politics: Still Tied Together

Beijing has asked Washington to relax its chip export rules, but no big changes have happened yet. In the meantime, China is telling local companies to stop using chips from Nvidia and AMD, especially for government projects.

Huawei, already under U.S. sanctions, is becoming a national symbol of China’s push to be more self-reliant. With tools like UCM, it's showing that software innovation can help fill the hardware gap.