Chinese chipmaker Iluvatar CoreX unveils ambitious GPU roadmap targeting Nvidia's Rubin by 2027

Newly-listed Chinese chipmaker targets beating Nvidia Rubin platform in just two years -- Shanghai Iluvatar CoreX unveils multi-year GPU architecture roadmap with 2027 deadline

Newly-listed chipmaker claims Hopper-class performance today, Rubin tomorrow. Chinese chip designer Shanghai Iluvatar CoreX Semiconductor has unveiled a multi-year GPU architecture roadmap that explicitly targets Nvidia's next-gen Rubin platform as its main competition, as China continues to push hard to establish viable domestic alternatives to Western silicon for AI training and inference hardware. According to reporting by the South China Morning Post, Iluvatar CoreX's roadmap outlines four successive GPU architectures, named after Chinese terms associated with the Big Dipper constellation. The company has said its current architecture, Tianshu, has already outperformed Nvidia's Hopper generation, while a follow-on design, Tianxuan, has been pitted against Blackwell. A third generation, Tianji, is earmarked as being capable of surpassing Blackwell this year, with a fourth, Tianquan, projected to exceed Rubin by 2027, claims the company. Following this, CoreX will attempt what it describes as a "breakthrough" architectural redesign. According to Iluvatar CoreX, Tianshu achieves more than 90% effective utilization of compute resources through architectural features that reduce redundant memory access and dynamically allocate workloads to ease resource contention. The company claims a roughly 20% higher average performance than Hopper on DeepSeek V3 through its own testing, a claim that comes conveniently soon after Nvidia's China business was dealt a new blow by the rejection of H200 GPUs by Chinese officials. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang arrived in China on Friday, January 23, for meetings with partners and customers, amid efforts to stabilize the company's position in the market. Beyond data-center GPUs, Iluvatar CoreX has also unveiled four edge-focused components under its Tongyang (TY) series, spanning 100 to 300 TOPS. The company claims its TY1000 exceeded Nvidia's Jetson AGX Orin in a range of test scenarios, but no detailed third-party benchmarks have been published -- a suspiciously common theme when Chinese manufacturers make such lofty performance claims. Founded in 2015, Iluvatar CoreX introduced its first general-purpose training GPU, TG Gen 1, which it described as China's first domestically mass-produced AI training GPU. A second-gen component followed in 2023, while TG Gen3 is scheduled for mass production later this year. The company also launched an inference-oriented ZK product line in 2022. The company was listed in Hong Kong on January 8, joining a wave of Chinese companies going public all at the same time, and is currently valued at around HK$46.3 billion based on current market capitalization. That places Iluvatar CoreX well below its larger domestic peers but is still significant for a firm of its age and size. In the first half of 2025, the company reported revenue of 324 million yuan and reportedly shipped more than 52,000 general-purpose GPUs. Whether the company's ambitious Rubin-era claims come to fruition remains to be seen, but, at least on paper, its roadmap demonstrates just how aggressively China's domestic tech companies are organizing their ambitions against Nvidia. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.

Chinese GPU startup Iluvatar CoreX lays out roadmap targeting Nvidia's Rubin

Chinese GPU startup Iluvatar CoreX has unveiled a multi-generation product roadmap that it says could see its fourth-generation architecture surpass Nvidia's upcoming Rubin platform by 2027, marking one of the latest efforts by domestic Chinese chipmakers to advance their AI computing capabilities. According to the company's disclosed timeline, Iluvatar CoreX plans to introduce its "Tianshu" architecture in 2025, targeting performance beyond Nvidia's Hopper platform, including the H200 series. In 2026, the company expects its "Tianxuan" architecture to compete with Nvidia's Blackwell generation, including the B200, followed later the same year by the "Tianji" architecture, which aims to exceed Blackwell-class performance. By 2027, Iluvatar CoreX plans to roll out its "Tianquan" architecture, which is designed to surpass Nvidia's Rubin platform. Beyond 2027, the company said it will shift toward developing more breakthrough computing chip architectures. Chinese companies have previously made similar commitments to compete with Nvidia's future AI platforms, including Huawei Technologies, as domestic players seek to strengthen local alternatives. Edge products deliver competitive performance Alongside the roadmap, Iluvatar CoreX also unveiled its "Tongyang" series of edge computing products. The company said tests conducted in real-world scenarios, including computer vision, natural language processing, and inference for large language models such as DeepSeek 32B, showed its TY1000 chip delivering performance above Nvidia's AGX Orin. Positioning strategy sets it apart from rivals Iluvatar CoreX said it aims to position itself as a supplier of high-end general-purpose GPUs and large-scale computing systems, distinguishing its approach from domestic rivals such as Biren Technology and Moore Threads. Biren focuses on developing general-purpose GPUs designed for training, inference, and scientific computing based on unified architectures. Moore Threads, by contrast, has pursued a full-function GPU strategy covering AI acceleration, professional graphics, desktop GPU,s and intelligent system-on-chip products. Put simply, Moore Threads is building a full-function GPU ecosystem, while Iluvatar CoreX and Biren are more clearly segmenting their product lines around computing workloads, though with different technical approaches. As of June 30, 2025, Iluvatar CoreX had delivered more than 52,000 GPUs to approximately 290 enterprise customers, with applications spanning sectors including finance and healthcare. Supply chain hurdles persist Like other Chinese AI chip developers, Iluvatar CoreX faces challenges related to manufacturing capacity and supply-chain access. Further performance gains will depend on continued advances in process technology and packaging. China's push to develop domestic alternatives to Nvidia continues as demand for AI computing grows across cloud, enterprise, and edge deployments.