Sberbank CEO German Gref announced hopes to power Russia's GigaChat AI model with Chinese-made chips during President Putin's visit to China. Western sanctions restrict Russia's access to advanced hardware.
"We are hoping that we will be able to use Chinese microchips for GigaChat," Gref told state broadcaster Channel One.
GigaChat was developed by Sberbank, Russia's largest lender, driving the country's AI push.
However, buying advanced chips from China faces stiff competition from Chinese tech giants like ByteDance, Tencent, and Alibaba, all rushing to order Huawei's Ascend 950 AI chips. Ascend 950 still trails Nvidia's H200 model.
Russia lags behind the US and China in AI and relies heavily on imported electronics. China remains its main supplier.
