China's homemade AI chips enable 10-day weather forecasts at record resolution

China has deployed a supercomputer built with 100,000 domestically manufactured artificial intelligence chips to achieve weather predictions 10 days ahead at a resolution of 5 kilometres, matching or surpassing the capabilities of most operational forecasting systems worldwide.

Domestic technology powers breakthrough

The advance relies on a Chinese-developed weather forecasting model running on the Sugon 8,000, a massive computing system constructed entirely with home-grown AI chips. The China Meteorological Administration and Beijing-based computing company Sugon jointly announced the results.

Global comparison

Most major global forecasting systems operate at resolutions ranging from roughly 5km to 10km. By comparison, the Global Forecast System, the main global weather model run by the US National Weather Service, achieves a maximum resolution of about 13km. The 5km resolution claimed by China is finer than most major systems in routine use around the world.

The development brings China closer to its ambitious forecasting goals, demonstrating the country's progress in building advanced meteorological infrastructure using entirely domestic semiconductor technology at a time when access to foreign chips faces restrictions.

Source: South China Morning Post