China ‘takes stock’ of Broadcom hardware as domestic AI push intensifies

China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (Sasac) is examining the use of US semiconductor manufacturer Broadcom’s hardware in government-backed data centres as it looks to reduce reliance on foreign AI infrastructure, the Financial Times has reported.

Citing two people familiar with the matter, the FT reported that Sasac has begun to survey the use of Broadcom switches in state-controlled data centres in recent weeks. The survey is intended to support the country’s “domestic chips for domestic use” campaign, one of the people told the paper.

This campaign is part of a push by China to increase the use of domestic semiconductors and AI products across its private sector. Last week, Chinese tech giant Huawei unveiled two new AI chips which its chairman said were aimed to improve the country’s self-sufficiency.

The survey has so far found that up to 90 per cent of network switches in state-controlled data centres could be produced by Broadcom, one of the people told the FT.

One of the people told the paper that these initial findings may lead Sasac to issue informal guidance to reduce the use of Broadcom switches in domestic data centres.

Broadcom is one of the major sellers of switches, which are used to transfer large quantities of data at very high speeds, in the country. Nvidia and Huawei are other large suppliers. While Nivida products have been banned in state-backed data centres since last year, sources told the FT that Broadcom chips switches remain prevalent.

The Sasac survey is examining whether the company has used its market leader position to bundle other products or impose large purchase requirements for switch chips. This alleged approach may have limited the ability of Chinese competitors such as H3C Technologies and Ruijie Networks to order from other switch makers such as Huawei, the FT reported.

These H3C and Ruijie are often the preferred vendors for government-run companies and public institutions, it added. The Chinese government is pushing its domestic industries to move towards homegrown switches, noting that Huawei has made large improvements to its own switches’ performance.

However, industry experts told the FT that they remain less energy efficient than those made by Broadcom, increasing electricity costs for users.

Despite a current reliance on foreign parts, Chinese AI developers have made large strides this year, with models from firms such as DeepSeek and Moonshot AI rivalling the power of US frontier models at a fraction of the cost.