China's LineShine Tops TOP500 at 2.198 Exaflops, Overtaking US El Capitan by 20%
Updated
Updated · Al Jazeera English · Jun 24
China's LineShine Tops TOP500 at 2.198 Exaflops, Overtaking US El Capitan by 20%
3 articles · Updated · Al Jazeera English · Jun 24
Summary
2.198 exaflops put China’s LineShine at No. 1 on the latest TOP500 list, ending El Capitan’s run at the top and giving China its first leader since 2017.
LineShine, installed in Shenzhen, is the first CPU-only system to exceed 2 exaflops, a result TOP500 organizers linked to China’s heavy investment and hardware-software co-design despite US chip export curbs.
El Capitan fell to second, with Frontier, Aurora and Germany’s Jupiter completing the top five in the biannual ranking announced in Hamburg.
Experts said the result should reverberate across the US, Europe and Japan as governments race for AI and digital sovereignty, even though TOP500 measures only one benchmark and not overall computing leadership.
Is China's new supercomputer a brilliant innovation or a costly detour forced by US sanctions?
With unverified claims and major data breaches, how real is China's proclaimed technological supremacy?
Did US sanctions backfire, creating the self-sufficient Chinese tech rival they were meant to prevent?
LineShine: China’s 2.2 Exaflops All-CPU Supercomputer Challenges U.S. Dominance and Global HPC Benchmarks
Overview
On June 23, 2026, China unveiled the LineShine supercomputer at ISC26 in Hamburg, marking a major milestone in high-performance computing. LineShine achieved a verified HPL score of 2.198 exaflops, making it the world’s fastest supercomputer and the first all-CPU, fully domestic exascale system. Built on the LingKun platform, it uses powerful LX2 304-core processors and the proprietary LingQi interconnect, relying entirely on domestically produced components. This achievement highlights China’s return to global supercomputing leadership and demonstrates its ability to innovate independently in advanced technology.