Huawei unveiled its first artificial intelligence (AI) chip for mobile devices on Saturday, pitting it against major players like NVIDIA, Google and potentially Apple.



The Kirin 970 is the size of a thumbnail and will support many of the AI capabilities that devices need today, such as voice interaction and image recognition.



Huawei's chip supports on-device AI. That means the AI functions are processed on the smartphone rather than in the cloud, which could speed up processes.



Manufacturers are bringing increasingly complex features to devices such as augmented reality. These require new chipsets as they advance.



Huawei could see some advantages by making their own chips. Firstly, it allows the company to control the exact design of their smartphone which could help it differentiate in a very crowded market. The Chinese firm has been making a big push in the smartphone space and is now the third-largest player in the world by market share, just behind Apple, according to research group IDC.