China Boosts Computing Power to Drive Digital Economy and AI Innovation

China is significantly enhancing its computing power to meet the demands of a booming digital economy and AI innovation. As revealed at the Global Digital Economy Conference 2024, the country plans to increase its computing capacity by over 30% by 2025, aiming for 300 EFLOPS.

China Focuses on Expanding Computing Power to Fuel Digital Economy and AI Innovation Amid Global Competition

The development of more substantial computing power has become a central focal point of China's strategic initiatives, driven by the requirements of a booming digital economy and innovations in large language models amid the global race to build artificial general intelligence, according to Xinhua.

In China, the total number of standard racks in use at data centers nationwide had surpassed 8.1 million by the end of last year, with a total computing capacity of 230 EFLOPS, according to data revealed at the Global Digital Economy Conference 2024, which concluded on Friday in Beijing. EFLOPS is a unit of measurement employed to ascertain a computer's pace. A 1 EFLOPS computing system can execute one quintillion floating-point operations per second.

Wang Xiaoli, a member of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, stated at the conference that computing power, the "new energy" of the digital economy, is transforming global economic landscapes at an unprecedented rate in the era of interconnected devices and data surges.

China Plans to Boost Computing Capacity by 30% by 2025, Integrating Green Energy Solutions

According to a plan released by six government departments in October 2023, China intends to increase the country's aggregate computing capacity by over 30% by 2025. The plan also establishes a goal for China's total computing power to achieve 300 EFLOPS by 2025.

Energy efficiency is a critical factor in developing computing capacity, as computing systems and data centers require a significant amount of electricity and excellent hardware.

China's related sectors have made significant strides in integrating green energy and computing capacity to address the growing energy demand. Yan Gang, the technical director of Yovole Network, a Shanghai-based cloud computing data center service provider, presented their approach to energy storage efficiency using advanced energy management technologies at the recently concluded conference.

"Our intelligent computing center employs combined cooling, heating, and power systems using hydrogen energy, photovoltaic storage, indirect evaporative cooling and liquid cooling technologies. In April, we also partnered with Tesla to apply their Megapack energy storage technology at our intelligent computing center,"Yan said.

In the meantime, the eastern regions of China have shared development opportunities in the digital era with the rest of the country due to the strong demand for computing capacity.

Western provincial-level regions in China, which are expansive and resource-rich, capitalize on substantial advantages in terms of favorable geographical conditions and renewable energy. These factors have enabled them to establish enormous data centers that support the country's intelligent industries and provide high-quality computing resources.

In December 2023, Ulanqab, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of north China, signed a strategic cooperation memorandum with the Beijing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology to facilitate the inflow of green computing power into Beijing.

Chai Yue, the vice mayor of Ulanqab, has stated that the city intends to supply Beijing with more than 10,000 PFLOPS of renewable general-purpose computing power annually by 2025. One petaFLOP, or petaflop, equals one quadrillion floating-point operations per second.

China's Computing Power Resources Transform Industries, Drive AI Development, and Foster Sector Collaborations

In addition, the region's computing power resources have altered its status from a traditional livestock industry center to an attraction for AI-related sectors. According to the Big Data Management Bureau of Hohhot (via Big News Network), the regional capital, half of the 70 large models registered in Beijing are currently training in Inner Mongolia.

Computing service providers from various industries are investigating methods to directly integrate computing power into enterprises, households, and business districts and establish infrastructure such as data centers.

This promising sector is forging deep collaborations with sectors including finance, education, healthcare, and transportation while investigating the "computing power plus" model.

Beijing established an autonomous driving demonstration area in Yizhuang, a southern enclave of the capital, in 2020. The intelligent road system employs holographic smart devices to monitor traffic conditions, supported by multifunctional poles along the road that transmit computational data to real-time cloud systems and vehicles. This vehicle-road collaboration technology, supported by a wealth of computing resources, optimizes automobile drive solutions, improving traffic safety and efficiency.

"Computing power is widely applied across various sectors, including government, industry, transportation, and healthcare, continually driving the emergence of new technologies, models, and business forms. This infusion of innovation is providing significant momentum for high-quality economic development," said Jin Zhuanglong, industry and information technology minister.

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