As global competition heats up in the AI sector, an emerging power has now joining the battlefield. Ola, an automotive manufacturer in India, plans to launch the country’s first in-house AI chip by 2026, which is based on ARM architecture, according to a report by Wccftech.

Though there are more details yet to be revealed, the report notes that Ola did highlight its key chip offerings, featuring the Bodhi series, which would be the nation’s first self-developed AI chips. The company’s product lineup also reportedly includes the Sarv-1 cloud-native CPUs and the Ojas edge AI chip.

When asked about the potential foundry partners in the future, Ola’s CEO Bhavish Aggarwal mentioned that the company plans to collaborate with a global tier I or II foundry, likely TSMC or Samsung, according to the report.

Ola’s AI lineup is expected to start with the Bodhi-1 AI chip, which is specifically designed for large-scale LLMs, with a focus on inferencing workloads, Wccftech suggests. Positioned as a low-to-mid-tier offering from Ola, the chip is said to be launched by 2026, followed by a more potent successor, the Bodhi-2, slated to be released in 2028.

According to Wccftech, it is worth noting that Ola also introduced an edge AI chip named Ojas, which is likely to be integrated into Ola’s next-generation electric vehicles. In addition, the Sarv-1, specifically designed for cloud computing, is expected to feature ARM Neoverse N3 cores, though this hasn’t been confirmed yet, the report states.

As the world’s fifth largest economy, India seems to be relatively slow in developing its own AI chips. China, the world’s largest developing country, has quite a long history in developing in-house AI chips.

Chinese tech giant Huawei is said to be testing its latest processor, the “Ascend 910C,” with internet companies and telecom operators recently. Reportedly, the company has informed potential customers that this new chip is comparable to NVIDIA’s H100 GPU, which cannot be directly sold in China.

On the other hand, Baidu’s foray into AI chips can be traced back to as early as 2011. After seven years of development, Baidu officially unveiled its self-developed AI chip, Kunlun 1, in 2018. T-Head, owned by Alibaba, introduced its first high-performance AI inference chip, the HanGuang 800, in September 2019.

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Is the AI bubble about to burst? Two years after OpenAI launched ChatGPT, sparkling a surge in generative AI startups, China has now seen a wave of closures on AI companies. According to a report by Commercial Times, citing Chinese media TMTPost, nearly 80,000 AI companies in China have registered and then either closed down or suspended operations within the past 600 days.

The reports note that according to the data from the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System of China, between November 30, 2022, the release date of ChatGPT, and July 29, 2024, a total of 78,612 AI-related companies in China, which were newly registered during this period, are now in a deregistered or abnormal business status. This accounts for 8.9% of the 878,000 AI companies registered during the same period.

The current adversity for the AI companies in China, the reports suggest, could be attributed to excessive spendings regarding high computational costs and R&D investments, declines in venture capital leading to a funding freeze, and difficulties in achieving profitability.

According to the reports, over the past three years, more than 200,000 AI-related companies in China have been deregistered or revoked, with a total of 353,000 AI-related companies disappearing within the past decade.

On the other hand, as of August 7th, there are said to be 300,700 new AI companies registered in 2024. Currently, there are 1,804,300 AI-related companies in existence in China, the reports state.

Among them, over 4,500 companies are officially recognized as part of the AI industry system. More than 180 large generative AI models, which have completed registration and be online to provide public services, have been developed, with a registered user base exceeding 564 million.

Wang Xiaochuan, founder of Chinese search engine company Sogou, once stated in 2023 that the Large Language Model (LLM) for AI would undergo an “elimination tournament” in China, with the top tier likely consisting of no more than five companies, according to a report on Soho.

Baidu CEO Robin Li also mentioned in July that China has too many large language models, calling for tech leaders to focus more on building real-world applications driven by AI. A report by South China Morning Post, quoting Li, said that since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, China’s generative AI market has become crowded with over 200 large language models.

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• [News] China Reportedly Imposes Mandatory AI Model Reviews on ByteDance, Alibaba, and Others

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According to a report from global media outlet Financial Times citing sources, Chinese authorities plan to implement mandatory reviews of large AI models. Reportedly, Chinese government officials are testing the large language models of AI companies to ensure that the systems embody core socialist values.

The Cyberspace Administration of China is said to have required major tech companies such as ByteDance, Alibaba, Moonshot, and 01.AI, as well as AI startups, to participate in these mandatory reviews.

Sources indicate that this effort involves testing a range of responses from the large AI  models, including those on politically sensitive topics in China and related to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Officials from the Cyberspace Administration of China’s local branches are conducting the reviews, examining the models’ training data and other security processes.

A Hangzhou-based AI company reported that the Cyberspace Administration has dedicated teams for this task, who visit offices to conduct audits. The company mentioned that their first review did not pass, and after months of adjustments and communication with peers, they passed the second review.

Regarding the aforementioned matter, the Cyberspace Administration, ByteDance, Alibaba, Moonshot, Baidu, and 01.AI have not yet responded.

(Photo credit: Alibaba)

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Earlier on July 10^th, in the Galaxy Unpack 2024 event in Paris, Samsung introduced its AI smartphone Galaxy Z Fold6 and Galaxy Z Flip6, along with the “Google Gemini” app installed in the models. However, according to the reports by Reuters and Business Korea, these two tech giants may be facing the investigation of the European Union (EU) antitrust regulators, on whether the collaboration might impede market access for other AI developers or limit competition.

It has been a while since the two tech heavyweight started to team up on AI. Samsung’s first AI phone, Galaxy S24, released earlier this year, has featured its self-developed AI, Gauss, as well as Google’s Gemini Nano.

The EU has ramped up its market monitoring efforts following the implementation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in March, focusing on major global tech companies. The DMA identifies seven companies—Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Booking and ByteDance —as ‘gatekeepers’ and imposes specific regulations on them to ensure fair competition in the digital market, Business Korea noted.

Now the spotlight has been shifted to the AI sector. According to Reuters, EU antitrust regulators are inquiring whether Google’s multi-year generative AI deal with Samsung hampers rival chatbots on Samsung smartphones. The report noted that last month, the European Commission announced it would send requests for information to understand the impact of the deal, which involves Samsung embedding Google’s Gemini Nano in its Galaxy S24 series smartphones.

According to the Reuters report, regulators are investigating if the pre-installation of Gemini Nano limits the functionality of other chatbots and applications on Samsung smartphones. The EU also asked companies whether they had attempted to enter into pre-installation agreements with Samsung for their chatbots and, if so, requested explanations for any failures. Respondents are required to complete the urvey by this week.

If anti-competitive practices are confirmed, an antitrust investigation against Google and Samsung could be initiated, Reuters stated.

According to Business Korea, after the Galaxy Unpacked 2024 event, TM Roh, President of Samsung Electronics (Head of MX Business Division), addressed regulatory risks during a press conference, saying the company is having various discussions internally and externally regarding EU regulations.

Roh also emphasized Samsung’s commitment to data security, stating that sensitive information is processed on-device (without connecting to external servers), making it inaccessible even to the company,” and highlighted the company’s approach to giving consumers the choice of using AI functions on-device or via the cloud.

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China aims to establish at least 50 AI standards by 2026, as outlined in a new draft policy from Beijing, according to a report by South China Morning Post. The draft policy, released on Tuesday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), will not only cover training for large language models (LLMs), but even semiconductors.

This initiative is part of China’s effort to catch up with the U.S. in AI development, the report noted. Earlier in April, Alibaba’s chairman, Joe Tsai, mentioned in an interview that China is at least two years behind its leading US counterparts, like OpenAI and Google, in the global AI race.

China’s proposed standards will cover training for large language models (LLMs), which are the foundation of generative AI services like ChatGPT. Additionally, they will address safety, governance, industrial applications, software, computing systems, data centers, and the technical requirements and testing methodologies for semiconductors.

According to MIIT, these standards are expected to apply to at least 1,000 Chinese technology companies. The document also states that China will participate in creating at least 20 international AI standards, the report said.

MIIT’s draft policy identifies 12 critical technologies in the AI supply chain, including LLMs, natural language processing, computer vision, and machine learning, which involves systems performing complex tasks akin to human problem-solving. The draft policy also identifies four layers that comprise China’s AI industry chain: the foundation (including the computing power, algorithms, and data needed to train LLMs), the framework, the model, and applications.

Citing an industrial expert, the report indicated that the latest draft policy, unlike the usual command-and-control regulations, has adopted a pro-market, soft-law approach to guide and promote China’s AI industry. This stance, which is comparatively innovation-oriented and market-friendly, will not only enable the establishment and development of an AI ecosystem, but benefit other industries as well.

China’s tech giants, led by Huawei, has been aggressively advancing in the AI arena. Previously, Huawei claimed its second-generation AI chip “Ascend 910B” could compete with NVIDIA’s A100 and was working to replace NVIDIA, which holds over 90% of the market share in China. However, according to ChosunBiz, the chip, being manufactured by China’s leading semiconductor foundry, SMIC, has been in mass production for over half a year, yet the yield rate remains around 20%.

On the other hand, in response to US export bans, NVIDIA has commenced to sell H20, its AI chip tailored for the Chinese market earlier this year.

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