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AI accelerator · China

T-Head PPU AI inference accelerator

Alibaba T-Head's AI inference accelerator (Parallel Processing Unit), benchmarked in state media on par with Nvidia's H20 and deployed at scale in China Unicom's $390 million all-domestic Xining data center. It is the first T-Head AI accelerator sold to external customers in volume.

ChinaShippingAlibaba T-Head (Pingtouge)Zhenwu familyLaunched 2025-097 nm at SMIC (reported)

Pricing not publicly disclosed · researched 2026-08-27

Specifications

Sourced specs

SpecValueSource
Memory96 GB HBM2evia reuters.com2025-09-17
Interconnect700 GB/s (chip-to-chip)via eetimes.com2025-09-23
Board power (TDP)400 Wvia eetimes.com2025-09-23
PerformanceOn par with Nvidia H20 (state-media benchmarks)via eetimes.com2025-09-23
Bill-of-materials cost~40% lower per card than Nvidia H20via eetimes.com2025-09-23
Flagship deployment16,384 PPU units (~72% of AI chips) in China Unicom's $390M, 20,000-petaflops Xining data centervia reuters.com2025-09-17
Foundry / nodeDomestic manufacture, likely SMIC 7 nmvia eetimes.com2025-09-23
Software compatibilityCompatible with existing Nvidia software frameworks (CUDA), enabling minimal software changesvia eetimes.com2025-09-23

Pricing

Price history, newest first

No public price observation yet.

vendor-official or multiple independent reports · single major report or several secondary · estimate or lone secondary source

Prices in USD, converted at each observation year's average exchange rate; the original figure and rate print under every converted price. How prices are sourced and graded ↗

Context

Notes

  • No selling price disclosed; the 40%-below-H20 figure is a BOM cost comparison, not a transaction price.
  • Naming: Reuters and EE Times call the 2025 chip 'PPU'; Alibaba's official materials (May 2026) name the shipping inference line 'Zhenwu 810E' as predecessor of the M890, and no source explicitly maps 'PPU' to 'Zhenwu 810E'.

Where it sits

In the stack

All specs and prices link to their original sources, dated as observed. Figures are market observations, not offers; treat each as of its date.