BEIJING's Cambricon Technologies, seen as one of China's top artificial intelligence (AI) chip developers, has laid off nearly half its workers, reports Hong Kong's South China Morning Post.

SingGo, a smart car chip unit under the Beijing-based holding company, cut nearly half the staff in its software departments and retained only several employees in hardware development, reported news portal Sina.com.

The company's Shenzhen office also laid off workers, the report said. On China's workplace networking site Maimai, a user who claimed to be an employee of SingGo said he was laid off and received one month's severance for each year of service.

If confirmed, the move marks Cambricon's second round of lay-offs this year, coming after the company was placed on a US trade blacklist last December over Washington's concerns that it could divert technology to the Chinese military.