Alibaba Group Holding has developed a new artificial-intelligence chip aimed at inference tasks, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The move is intended to narrow the gap created by restrictions on Nvidia’s most advanced products in China. The processor is described as more versatile than Alibaba’s earlier in-house silicon and can handle a broader range of AI workloads while remaining compatible with Nvidia’s development tools, enabling engineers to reuse code written for Nvidia GPUs. It is currently undergoing testing. Unlike Alibaba’s previous AI chip, which was fabricated by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the new part is being produced by a mainland Chinese foundry, underscoring Beijing’s drive to localize critical technology amid escalating U.S. export controls. China’s push for self-reliance in high-end semiconductors has accelerated since Washington tightened rules on shipments of Nvidia’s H20 and more powerful processors. Alibaba, the country’s largest cloud-computing provider and a major Nvidia customer, joins local peers such as Huawei in stepping up development of domestically sourced alternatives.