- Future roadmap includes a powerful 256-core model by 2028
- Recent benchmarks show Kunpeng 960 achieving impressive performance
- Kunpeng 950 powers a new SuperPoD designed for financial industries
Huawei is taking its Kunpeng processor lineup to a whole new level. They have articulated plans that will see these chips scaling up to a staggering 256 cores, but we won’t see it hit the market until 2028.
During a recent event in Shanghai, Huawei’s rotating chairman Eric Xu revealed, “In the first quarter of 2026, we’ll roll out the Kunpeng 950 in two options: one featuring 96 cores equipped with 192 threads, and the other boasting 192 cores and 384 threads.” He shared these insights in his keynote.
The Kunpeng 950 processors will support the TaiShan 950 SuperPoD, which can comprise up to 16 nodes and an impressive 48TB of RAM.
Spotlight on Kunpeng 960
Xu also touted the upcoming SuperPoD based on Kunpeng 950 as, “the world’s first general-purpose computing SuperPoD.” It’s set to be a go-to option for replacing outdated mainframes, particularly in the financial sector.
Thanks to Huawei’s GaussDB—an open-source distributed database—the SuperPoD can offer a reported 2.9x performance boost without the need for major tweaks to current setups. This makes it a favorable alternative to systems like Oracle’s Exadata.
Looking even further ahead, Xu confirmed there’s a 256-core processor in the works, stating, “In the first quarter of 2028, we plan to introduce two models, one with a high-density design featuring at least 256 cores and 512 threads.” This beast of a chip is aimed at virtualization, container tasks, and handling large data workloads.
A second model is expected to excel in single-core performance, expected to improve by over 50% for AI tasks and database operations.
Strong indications are there from MogDB’s performance benchmarks, an open-source database based on openGauss, which suggests that the Kunpeng can scale effectively in substantial deployments. Their tests with a 256-core Kunpeng configuration showed it achieving a whopping 4.8 million transactions per minute while handling 768 connections, demonstrating how workload efficiency bests as concurrency increases.
Interestingly, Xu didn’t mention the processor’s name during his presentation, yet the benchmarks reference it as Kunpeng 960. This aligns with Huawei’s current inclusion of the 960 designation across their Atlas and Ascend product families.
According to Huawei, the company will keep refining the Kunpeng architecture and packaging tech.
If everything goes according to plan, this upcoming 256-core chip would mark a significant milestone, positioning itself as one of the largest general-purpose CPUs on the market.
While the anticipated target of 2028 seems plausible, I can’t help but wonder if the benchmark results signify that Huawei might be ahead of schedule. Could we see this revolutionary chip hit the shelves sooner? We’ve reached out for more info about the Kunpeng 960, though we’re keeping our expectations manageable.
