Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek has partnered with Huawei Technologies to develop programming tools for Huawei’s Ascend chips, highlighting growing collaboration among Chinese technology companies seeking alternatives to Nvidia’s dominant AI computing ecosystem.

DeepSeek announced the partnership in a post on its official WeChat account, saying it has open-sourced infrastructure designed for Huawei’s Ascend platform.

The infrastructure includes TileLang, a high-level programming language, as well as related computing and communication libraries.

The company said the initiative is aimed at supporting the development of an independent and self-controlled GPU software ecosystem in China. According to DeepSeek, establishing a high-level programming language that is universal, easy to use, and capable of fully utilizing hardware performance is a key priority in building such an ecosystem.

“TileLang was created precisely to meet this need, DeepSeek said, describing the language as offering a simpler programming model compared with Nvidia’s CUDA. The company said this could improve development efficiency while making code logic easier to manage.

The collaboration comes as Chinese technology companies increasingly explore domestic alternatives to Nvidia’s chips and software infrastructure amid restrictions on advanced semiconductor exports to China.

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Huawei’s Ascend series has emerged as one of the country’s key alternatives for AI computing, while Chinese developers are working to build supporting software and tools around domestic hardware.

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DeepSeek’s move to open-source its Ascend-related infrastructure could help developers adapt AI applications to Huawei’s computing platform and reduce dependence on software ecosystems built around Nvidia hardware.

The partnership also reflects a broader push within China to strengthen the integration between domestically developed AI models, chips, programming frameworks, and supporting software.

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By improving programming tools for Ascend chips, DeepSeek and Huawei are seeking to make domestic AI infrastructure more accessible to developers and potentially accelerate the adoption of locally developed computing technologies.