Chinese CPUs are closing the gap on AMD — next-gen Zhaoxin chips feature 96 cores, 12-channel DDR5 memory, and 128 PCIe 5.0 Lanes

(Image credit: Zhaoxin)

Zhaoxin, one of China's top fabless semiconductor companies, has announced the company's next-generation KaiXian KX-7000N and Kaisheng KH-50000 processors at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2025. The former is a new consumer chip for AI PCs, while the latter is a server chip with specifications that rival AMD's EPYC portfolio.

The Kaisheng KH-50000, the successor to the Kaisheng KH-40000, will feature up to 96 cores, aligning with AMD's EPYC 9004 (codenamed Genoa) series. The forthcoming server processors provide three times the number of cores compared to Zhaoxin's current models. Nevertheless, the company has not disclosed whether the Kaisheng KH-50000 will incorporate simultaneous multithreading (SMT) or continue to operate without SMT, as is the case with the Kaisheng KH-40000.

Zhaoxin Kaisheng KH-50000 Processor Specifications

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Processor	Architecture	Cores / Threads	Base Clock (GHz)	L3 Cache (MB)	PCIe Lanes	Memory Support	ZPI Support
Kaisheng KH-50000	?	96 / ?	2.2 - 3.0	384	128 PCIe 5.0	12-channel DDR5	ZPI 5.0
Kaisheng KH-40000	Yongfeng	32 / 32	2.5	64	128 PCIe 3.0	8-channel DDR4	ZPI 3.0

In terms of clock speed, Zhaoxin may achieve a range between 2.2 GHz and 3.0 GHz for the Kaisheng KH-50000. This may be higher or lower than the Kaisheng KH-40000, which operates at 2.5 GHz. The increase in core count is also associated with an expansion of the L3 cache. Zhaoxin has officially confirmed that the Kaisheng KH-50000 is equipped with 384MB of L3 cache, a capacity that is six times greater than that of the Kaisheng KH-40000.

You may be aware that AMD's Genoa processors include 384MB of L3 cache. Indeed, the Kaisheng KH-50000 could potentially be an identical counterpart to Genoa. Similar to Genoa, the Kaisheng KH-50000 provides 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes and support for 12-channel DDR5 ECC memory, in addition to embracing the Compute Express Link (CXL) interconnect.

The Kaisheng KH-50000 supports ZPI (Zhaoxin Processor Interconnect) 5.0, allowing partners to install two or four chips on one motherboard. This enables systems with up to 384 cores.

KaiXian KX-7000N

Zhaoxin is riding the AI PC trend. The company revealed the upcoming KaiXian KX-7000N processor at WAIC. This chip is likely based on the KaiXian KX-7000 but features an added NPU for AI tasks, which is probably what the "N" signifies in its name.

The KaiXian KX-7000N marks a significant milestone for Zhaoxin, as it is the company's first chip to feature an NPU. Several AI PCs featuring the KaiXian KX-7000N were showcased at the WAIC 2025 event. However, Zhaoxin did not provide detailed specifications for the KX-7000N, only mentioning that it will have more cores and enhanced support for PCIe 5.0, unlike the current KaiXian KX-7000, which is limited to PCIe 4.0.

Companies such as Zhaoxin and Lisuan Technology are making significant advances in hardware. Although Chinese-made processors and graphics cards haven't yet challenged industry giants like Intel, AMD, or Nvidia, that remains a future objective. Currently, their focus is on creating reliable products that deliver a decent enough computing experience. Each progress, big or small, moves China closer to achieving technological independence from the West.

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Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

12 Comments Comment from the forums

Joshua Thornton

Even though it's all using stolen technology and IP, their progress is impressive.
Reply
bcountry71

It's one thing to start from scratch and build up the tech from nothing but communist china has pulled off the biggest tech theft in the history of mankind and it's mostly because of the western nations lust for short term profits from cheap labor but will now end up destroying the western companies because of it.
Reply
93QSD5

bcountry71 said:
It's one thing to start from scratch and build up the tech from nothing but communist china has pulled off the biggest tech theft in the history of mankind and it's mostly because of the western nations lust for short term profits from cheap labor but will now end up destroying the western companies because of it.

They destroy western markets by creating the illusion of competition to flood selection (BKK Electronics), and lower prices (even below break-even values) to the point where western counter parts have either no chance or ruin themselves financially in the long run (while creating shiitier products of course).

I'm surprised, that people are only just now learning about this.
Reply
gunish_d

I agree it may be tech theft, but how many empires do we need to go back to understand how resources have exchanged empires and hands over time.

We have taken from the east in other ways, they have taken intellectual property (although I don't agree with it) but it's the way it always has been.

One thing that I can see when the Chinese chips do take off (if they actually do), the west will play the chinese tech down by saying there are security concerns etc.
Reply
SkyBill40

The more companies like Nvidia and AMD keep selling them (or "licensing") tech, the faster the Chinese will reverse engineer or outright steal it and develop their own based on it. Profits aren't everything in business, but greed is the name of the game in those circles.

Gordon Gekko, if he were a real person, would be beamingly proud.
Reply
nookoool

Low core benchmarks but huge core/thread density. Fine for web and app servers. China Unicom recently had a 1 billion dollar server tender. 90% went to domestic chinese cpu. This will likely be the future trend on the server side. More revenue means more RnD and the cycle will continue.
Reply
closs.sebastien

Airbus authorized a "knowledge sharing" and built a shared fab in china, to be allowed to sell its planes to china.
Yet, a chinese company "comac" sell a new plane, 100% chinese, which is very very very similar to ... an airbus.
And they want to sell it, not only to chinese companies, but of course, to the rest of the world.
We - european-, and more generally west-countries, are just naive.. and now, we start to see the results.
Reply
Rob1C

Our short term gain: Saved a buck.
Our long term loss: Lost a few bucks, and jobs; other things such as military advantage.

Their long term and irreversible loss: Pollution and death.

Reply
abufrejoval

93QSD5 said:
They destroy western markets by creating the illusion of competition to flood selection (BKK Electronics), and lower prices (even below break-even values) to the point where western counter parts have either no chance or ruin themselves financially in the long run (while creating shiitier products of course).
Such tactics aren't uniquely Chinese.

IBM used them for mainframes, the Japanese used them for DRAM, and there are probably thousands of other markets where it's been done before, e.g. Rockefeller with SOHIO.

It's never nice to be on the receiving end of dirty tricks.
Reply
Moores_Ghost

Tariffs will not hold back China forever.
That said that chip is ARM.
They WILL develop an Nvidia killer and simply not sell it to anyone else for a time.
Some know this and decided to try and slow their process with tariffs instead of trying to work together for the entire planet, not just one country.
Why so few see this I do not know.
There is no stopping the Chinese Juggernaut. So why not benefit alongside them? The only reason left is human rights. If over a billion Chinese haven't stormed their military to proclaim this, why are we still believing it? We are taught all are equal and we can all get along, except the Chinese. North Korea I fully understand and Russia is lost with Putin but China? They have the ability to be one of our biggest allies. They lend us money. They buy our products even with tariffs that are doing way more to hurt us than them. Times up now. Time to politely ask China to take a seat at our table. Remember, you have to ask twice and allow them to decline once if you know your etiquette.
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