Tencent, a major Chinese tech company, plans to establish a supernode, following Huawei's lead.
Tencent Cloud, a subsidiary of Tencent, announced on July 22 that it aims to build the supernode in the fourth quarter of this year. The company stated that it intends to create large-scale AI computing capabilities using Chinese technology to minimize inference costs.
A supernode is a massive AI computing system that connects thousands of AI semiconductors to function as a single large computer. Building a supernode is essential for reliably providing services for training and inference of large language models (LLMs). The supernode will utilize Chinese-made AI semiconductors, although specific products have not yet been disclosed.
Additionally, Tencent indicated that the supernode will be based on NPO (Near-Package Optics) technology. NPO involves placing optical modules next to chips to transmit data as optical signals, which can reduce power consumption and heat generation, leading to cost savings. This technology is still in its early commercialization phase and requires compatibility among optical modules, switches, and packaging technologies. Tencent emphasized the need for industry stakeholders to collaboratively establish NPO standards.
Tencent Cloud provides AI infrastructure to major AI startups and corporate clients in China. The goal of building the supernode is to offer services at even lower costs.
Meanwhile, due to U.S. semiconductor sanctions, China has been unable to procure NVIDIA's latest AI semiconductors. As a result, the country is adopting a strategy of connecting lower-spec Chinese AI semiconductors in large clusters to compensate for the lack of chip performance.
On July 17, Huawei unveiled its self-developed supernode system, the Atlas 950 Superpod, at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai. This product is designed to efficiently connect up to 8,192 neural processing units (NPUs) for training and inference of large language models with trillions of parameters. Huawei's supernode is equipped with its own AI chip, Ascend.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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