Tencent Holdings has significantly enhanced its high-performance computing network, Xingmai 2.0, by upgrading its network performance, reports the South China Morning Post. The move boosted the company's AI capabilities and improved large language model (LLM) training efficiency. This development aligns with China's efforts to advance its AI prowess despite restrictions on shipments of advanced processors, such as Nvidia's H100, to China.
The Xingmai 2.0 network supports over 100,000 GPUs in a single computing cluster, doubling the capacity of the initial network launched in 2023. The report says the upgraded Xingmai 2.0 network increases network communication efficiency by 60% and LLM training efficiency by 20%. Tencent achieved these performance improvements by optimizing existing infrastructure instead of investing in new processors, which are hard (almost impossible for a Chinese entity) to get due to U.S. export rules.
