China has announced the launch of Darwin Monkey, also known as Wukong, the world’s most powerful neuromorphic supercomputer. Developed by the State Key Laboratory of Brain-Machine Intelligence at Zhejiang University in collaboration with Zhejiang Lab, this new system marks a significant advancement in artificial intelligence by closely mimicking the operational principles of the human brain.
At the heart of Darwin Monkey are 960 Darwin 3 neuromorphic chips, collectively supporting over 2 billion spiking artificial neurons and more than 100 billion synapses. These chips utilize Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs), an architecture that transmits information through electrical pulses similar to biological neurons. This method dramatically increases energy efficiency and parallel processing capabilities, consuming only about 2,000 watts—far less than traditional high-performance computing systems of comparable scale.
The system has integrated the DeepSeek brain-inspired large AI model, allowing it to excel at complex tasks ranging from reasoning and content creation to language understanding and solving mathematical challenges. Darwin Monkey’s ability to simulate entire biological brains, from simple organisms like C. elegans to advanced primates such as macaques, has significant implications for neuroscience research. This capability could reduce the need for animal testing and provide realistic brain models for experimentation, offering valuable insights into brain function and disease.
A key strength of Darwin Monkey lies in its wholly domestic development. The project relies solely on Chinese-made chips, operating systems, and AI models, highlighting China’s capacity to produce end-to-end, homegrown AI supercomputing infrastructure. This achievement comes at a time of increased global competition in technology and illustrates China’s determination to reduce reliance on foreign technology.
With its more than 2 billion neurons, the Darwin Monkey system outpaces previous leading neuromorphic platforms, including Intel’s Hala Point, which supported 1.15 billion neurons. This advancement solidifies China’s leadership in large-scale, energy-efficient brain-like AI systems and brain simulation technologies.
The development of Darwin Monkey signals a broader trend in AI research toward neuromorphic computing, which offers a more biologically accurate and sustainable model than conventional transformer-based AI systems. Experts suggest that this could reshape the future of both artificial intelligence and neurological research, providing pathways for developing smarter and more flexible intelligent systems.
The project’s significance is reinforced by detailed technical validation and official backing from prominent Chinese research organizations, underlining China’s commitment to driving innovation in intelligent systems modelled after the human brain.
