Alibaba Unveils 5-Nanometer XuanTie C950 AI Chip

As demand for large-language-model computing grows, AI chips have become critical infrastructure for cloud services and model development. Alibaba’s push into proprietary chips is aimed at reducing its reliance on specific suppliers and underscores a broader trend of continued investment by China’s technology sector in AI computing capacity and the open-source RISC-V ecosystem.

Alibaba unveiled its 5-nanometer XuanTie C950 AI chip on March 24, 2026. Built on the open-source RISC-V architecture and manufactured by TSMC, the chip is designed for large-language-model inference and training. It supports models including Qwen3 and DeepSeek, but Alibaba has yet to disclose pricing, production volumes or a shipment schedule.