Tencent has significantly upgraded its HPC network, known as Xingmai, improving its AI capabilities by up to 60% in network communications and 20% in LLM training.
The update, reported by the The South China Morning PostIt reflects a broader effort among Chinese tech giants to boost technological self-sufficiency amid restricted access to advanced processors such as Nvidia’s H100 due to strict U.S. export controls.
The report notes that the Xingmai 2.0 network significantly improves the efficiency of communication between computing clusters. Previously, excessive communication time between clusters resulted in GPU capabilities being underutilized. By upgrading its network, Tencent has not only improved the communication process but also managed to reduce costs, which benefits both parties.
LLMs developed in-house
The update comes at a time when Chinese companies are increasingly looking to reduce their reliance on foreign technology and find clever ways to get around the US export ban. In a previous example of this, we saw Huawei improve the performance of its AI chip by adding a vector unit on each core and increasing the clock speed to compensate for having fewer active AI cores.
Unlike its US competitors, which are focused on increasing spending and acquiring cutting-edge semiconductors, Tencent has managed to improve its performance by optimising its existing facilities. The upgraded network now supports more than 100,000 GPUs in a single cluster, doubling its initial capacity and reducing troubleshooting time from days to just minutes.
The Shenzhen-based company's advances in artificial intelligence are not limited to infrastructure improvements. The South China Morning Post Tencent is actively promoting its internally developed LLMs for enterprise applications, and also offers services that help other companies develop their own AI models.
China’s AI industry is currently embroiled in a price war, with major players such as Tencent, ByteDance, Baidu and Alibaba significantly cutting costs in an attempt to undercut their Western competitors. Tencent recently made its Lite version of Hunyuan LLM free and cut prices for standard versions, following similar moves by its rivals.
