LineShine reclaims – China says its LineShine has reclaimed the world’s fastest supercomputer title for the first time since 2018, pushing El Capitan out of the No. 1 spot on the TOP500 list. The result comes as the US tightens chip access to China, yet LineShine—without using GPU
When the TOP500 rankings refresh, the top spot doesn’t just move—it sends a signal. China says it has reclaimed the world’s fastest supercomputer title for the first time since 2018, with LineShine pushing El Capitan out of number one.
That comeback lands in a tense tech moment. The shift comes despite strict limits on what high-powered computing components can be sold to China by US firms. which dominate the TOP500 list. with America holding three of the top five spots. Instead of doubling down on the most typical hardware path. LineShine takes a different route: it doesn’t even use any GPUs. which are typically the backbone of modern supercomputers.
The machine is built around roughly 45,000 LX2 processors. Each processor runs 304 cores at 1.55GHz, and they’re connected over a special high-speed, low-latency network called LingQi. LineShine also becomes the first supercomputer to cross the 2. 000 exaflop barrier. and it posts a performance level that is 20 percent faster than the number-two system. El Capitan. on the TOP500 list.
But speed comes with a cost. LineShine uses 42.2 megawatts, dramatically higher and less efficient than El Capitan’s 29.7 megawatts.
Taken together, the engineering choices and the political backdrop read like a deliberate response. The Trump administration has sought to limit China’s access to chips from firms like NVIDIA and placed steep tariffs on products going in and out of the country. China’s answer. in this telling. is to build around more readily available and generalized CPUs—hardware that doesn’t depend on the same GPU supply chains that US firms have helped define.
The numbers on the ranking are the headline. The energy draw and the decision to avoid GPUs are what make it feel like more than a vanity win—an attempt to keep computing momentum moving even as access narrows.
LineShine El Capitan TOP500 supercomputer exaflop LX2 processors LingQi network GPUs China-US trade restrictions NVIDIA CPUs megawatts
So basically China cheated again? Or is this legit? I can’t tell.
Wait it says no GPUs but still super fast?? That sounds like a typo lol. Also 42 megawatts is insane, does that mean they just waste power?
El Capitan got knocked off which means the US is still losing, right? Like it’s obvious they can’t compete without the GPU stuff. Then again the article says the US has 3 of top 5 so idk.
This is probably just propaganda. TOP500 is one list, and the energy usage is way higher so maybe it’s not actually “better,” just bigger. Also they mention Trump tariffs like that’s the reason… chip access is politics, not engineering.