Market Overview

IDC China released the latest “China Semi-annual Accelerated Computing Market (2024 H1) Tracking” report. IDC data shows that the scale of China’s accelerated server market will reach US$5 billion in the first half of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 63% from the first half of 2023. Among them, GPU servers still dominate, reaching US$4.3 billion. At the same time, non-GPU accelerated servers such as NPU, ASIC and FPGA have reached a market size of nearly US$700 million with a year-on-year growth rate of 182%.

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AI Servers’ Sales Perspective

Top 3 Manufacturers: Inspur, H3C and Kunqian

In the first half of 2024, from the perspective of manufacturer sales, Inspur, H3C and Ningchang ranked in the top 3, accounting for more than 70% of the market share; from the perspective of server shipments, Inspur, H3C and Kunqian ranked in the top 3, accounting for nearly 60% of the market share; from the perspective of the industry, the Internet is still the largest purchasing industry, accounting for more than 60% of the overall accelerated server market. Except for the two industries of finance and services, the remaining industries have different degrees of growth.

Future Trends in AI Server Sales

The surge in AI server sales will grow exponentially as industries across the board recognize the immense value these advanced systems bring to their operations. With the non-GPU market growth surpassing 200%, it’s evident that businesses are heavily investing in AI infrastructure to stay competitive and innovative. This upward trend not only highlights the increasing demand for AI capabilities but also underscores the strategic importance of integrating such technologies to enhance efficiency and drive profitability.

AI Servers’ International Environment

Domestic AI Chip Development and Challenges

Due to the control of the United States on related technologies and products, on the one hand, it has restricted the development of China’s AI industry; on the other hand, it has also stimulated the enthusiasm of Chinese manufacturers to develop their own AI chips. But at the same time, there is still room for improvement in the post-maintenance and ecological support of domestically developed chips. From the perspective of the market and the industrial chain, at the moment of in-depth development of industry large models, the market demand for high-computing and stable AI servers continues to increase; after the implementation of 5G communication technology, the market’s requirements for comprehensive, efficient and collaborative AI computing system networks have deepened. In addition to higher computing power and faster bandwidth, these two trends have put forward higher requirements for domestic AI servers to have a shorter average failure time, more comprehensive basic computing power supporting facilities, and more professional and wider coverage of operation and maintenance teams. IDC predicts that by 2028, the scale of China’s accelerated server market will reach US$25.3 billion. Among them, the market size of non-GPU servers will be close to 50%.

Predictions for the Future

The in-depth research and development of industry large models has a significant driving effect on AI software, hardware and ecological deployment. Artificial intelligence provides more detailed and diverse solutions in comprehensive and complex scenarios such as smart cities and smart homes, and in the subdivided functional levels of industries such as finance, medical care, and education. The large model market has formed the characteristics of multiple scenarios, multiple tracks, high-quality output, and fierce competition. Each of the large models with its own characteristics seeks to acquire C-end customers with more innovative entry points, better content services and more affordable prices. The highly competitive environment places higher demands on the training of large models and the computing power of AI servers.

AI Servers’ Market Analysis

Market Size and Share

In the first half of 2024, the market size of China’s acceleration chips has reached more than 900,000. From a technical perspective, GPU cards account for 80% of the market share; from a brand perspective, the shipment volume of Chinese local artificial intelligence chip brands has reached nearly 200,000, accounting for about 20% of the entire market share. Artificial intelligence chips used for reasoning account for 61% of the market share. After the entry of acceleration cards was restricted, due to the continuous demand for computing power in the general trend of digital transformation, the market share of Chinese local brand acceleration cards has increased to a certain extent.

Recommended AI Servers

Next, we will recommend several AI servers and introduce their unique advantages and key features to help you meet and exceed your needs for high-performance computing and AI workloads.

• Inspur AI Server: Using NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs, supporting 8 GPU cards, suitable for deep learning, inference and high-performance computing.
• Supermicro AI Server: Supports the latest NVIDIA A100 and V100 GPUs, providing powerful parallel computing capabilities. An efficient cooling system is used to ensure the stable operation of the server under high load.
• ASUS AI Server: Supports 8 high-performance GPUs, suitable for various AI and deep learning applications. Adopt optimized heat dissipation design to ensure the stability and reliability of the system under high performance.

Expert analysis

IDC China AI infrastructure analyst Du Yunlong believes that China’s AI chip industry is undergoing unprecedented changes and development. With the acceleration of the global trend of digitalization and intelligence, the importance of chips as core components of modern electronic devices is self-evident. As a high-tech industry, AI is still in a stock market due to the incomplete construction of domestic technology and supporting facilities under the background of import restrictions. In addition, due to the crazy purchase of stocks in the early stage, AI servers are still in a stock market state. On the other hand, the existing inventory provides a certain period of buffer period for China’s technology upgrade. Although there is a gap with the international advanced level in advanced processes, the overall development trend is positive driven by government policy support, market demand growth and technological progress. In the field of AI where opportunities and challenges coexist, companies need to rationally analyze the development of the AI ​​industry, recognize the advantages and market positioning of manufacturers themselves, and find the right track for in-depth research and development. In addition, with the deepening of the demand for large models in the industry, the ecological construction of adapting to China’s computing power facilities will become the main focus, and the industrial chain network and other technical support must keep up with the pace of AI computing power facilities.

Conclusion

To sum up, with the development of AI technology and the popularization of applications, the AI ​​server market has shown a steady growth trend, and the non-GPU server market has grown rapidly at a rate of more than 2 times. This trend not only reflects the industry’s increasing demand for high-performance computing, but also demonstrates the huge potential brought by technological diversification. In such a market full of opportunities, choosing the right server provider is crucial. Router-switch.com is committed to providing customers with high-quality AI servers, ensuring excellent product performance and reasonable prices. At the same time, we also provide reliable service and customer support to keep your business ahead of the rapidly evolving technological era. Choose Router-switch.com and let us become your trusted partner to embrace the infinite possibilities of future technology.