The muscle of many supercomputers seemed to depend on GPUs: China is testing another path to surpass the US number one

China is testing AI supercomputers built entirely with domestic CPUs as an alternative to restricted GPUs.

The flagship example is LineShine in Shenzhen, which uses 47,000 LX2 CPUs and aims for more than 2 exaflops.

The project is being framed as a response to U.S. limits on advanced GPU access, especially Nvidia hardware.

It highlights a potential path for scaling AI and HPC under export controls, though performance and efficiency remain key questions.