China has an alternative to NVIDIA’s CUDA: What do we know about the new system?

China is making serious strides toward independence in artificial intelligence, and a key part of that effort is reducing reliance on U.S.-based technologies like NVIDIA’s CUDA. While NVIDIA’s dominance stems not just from its hardware but from its powerful software ecosystem, a new Chinese solution is aiming to challenge that supremacy.

CUDA remains the dominant force—but for how long?

CUDA is deeply embedded in most AI projects worldwide. It offers a full development environment—compiler, runtime libraries, and debugging tools—that’s incredibly hard to replace. For Chinese companies, replacing CUDA isn’t just a technical challenge; it’s also a geopolitical necessity, as the country pushes for technological self-sufficiency.

Huawei has its own answer in CANN, but the real momentum may come from a younger player: Moore Threads.

Moore Threads enters with MUSA

Founded in 2020 by a former NVIDIA executive, Moore Threads is positioning itself as China’s top GPU contender. The company offers several GPU models aimed at both gaming and AI, such as the MTT S4000 and S3000, but its real innovation is software: MUSA (MT Unified System Architecture).

MUSA is a complete alternative to CUDA, featuring a compiler, libraries, and debugging tools. But its most promising feature is CUDA code compatibility, allowing existing projects to migrate more easily. This means China could bypass one of the biggest hurdles in abandoning U.S. AI infrastructure.

Whether MUSA will gain traction remains to be seen, but it’s clear that China is building a parallel AI ecosystem, and Moore Threads may be its most important piece.