{"id":880570,"date":"2026-10-13T07:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T07:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/880570\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T07:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T07:06:15","slug":"the-us-is-fighting-over-ai-data-centers-china-is-building-them-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/880570\/","title":{"rendered":"The US is fighting over AI data centers. China is building them fast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n The area appears like a high-tech mirage. Block after block of hulking data centers \u2013 both new and under construction \u2013 rise up seemingly out of nowhere from rolling plains and fields of sunflowers and sorghum.\n <\/p>\n

\n On their sides are some of the biggest names in Chinese tech \u2013 hardware giant Huawei, social media platform Kuaishou, service provider VNET \u2013 all packed into a zone thrumming with bustle and movement.\n <\/p>\n

\n This is Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, a Chinese city on the edge of the Gobi desert. It\u2019s fast becoming one of the data hubs fueling a massive AI boom in China that\u2019s made the country the only serious rival to the US\u2019 ambitions to dominate the technology. Nearly 90 data centers are slated to be built in this city of fewer than two million people.\n <\/p>\n

\n As of last year, the US had roughly 10 times more AI data centers than China, according to Stanford University research<\/a> \u2013 and vastly more computing power, other estimates show<\/a>. American tech firms have something China\u2019s don\u2019t: access to the most advanced chips, the single most important ingredient for developing AI.\n <\/p>\n

\"Bayin<\/p>\n

Inside China’s push to win the AI race\n <\/p>\n

\"Bayin<\/p>\n

Inside China’s push to win the AI race<\/p>\n

3:04<\/p>\n

\n But Ulanqab \u2013 with its growing number of AI and big-data centers \u2013 showcases the advantages on China\u2019s side in the race for the technology that could define the 21st century.\n <\/p>\n

\n The towering units here were constructed at breakneck speed, with most of the densely packed Bayin Big Data Industrial Park taking shape in just two years, testament to China\u2019s capacity to build fast.\n <\/p>\n

\n Heavy winds, beating sun and wide, open spaces give the area plentiful access to cheap green energy and land.\n <\/p>\n

\n And, crucially, throughout the Communist Party-run country, public opposition to the mass construction of data centers \u2013 the kind that is making headlines in the US \u2013 is non-existent.\n <\/p>\n

\n At Ulanqab\u2019s Bayin industrial park on a recent weekday, a steady stream of construction workers had their faces scanned as they filed past guards to enter building sites, while trucks rumbled along, feeding supplies to the facilities taking shape within. Outside their perimeters, vendors hawked noodles and cigarettes from makeshift stalls.\n <\/p>\n

\"Grocery<\/p>\n

\"Workers<\/p>\n

\n The din of construction didn\u2019t appear unwelcome to locals living nearby. Some who spoke to CNN said they were benefiting from the projects \u2013 and the influx of migrant construction workers that came with them to an area whose economy was otherwise largely reliant on agriculture.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cBefore, we\u2019d just sit there and wait for customers. Now we\u2019re constantly busy \u2013 picking up orders, doing this and that. We barely get a break,\u201d said Ma Rong, 56, who has run a grocery store and guest house in the area for the past 30 years. \u201cOur business has gotten much better than before,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Some have been uprooted by changes sweeping the region, like restaurant owner Liu Baoping, 58, who said he had to leave his original business location due to the demolition of a highway. But he describes his daily clientele as doubling alongside the data-center buildout. \u201cThe environment isn\u2019t as clean as before, but people\u2019s incomes and the economy \u2013 it\u2019s way better,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Ulanqab is part of Beijing\u2019s vision to rapidly scale up data infrastructure \u2013 a key priority for a government that sees AI as a crucial engine of growth for the country\u2019s slowing economy with its shrinking population.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cChina has embraced AI with open arms,\u201d Chinese leader Xi Jinping told a global artificial intelligence conference in Shanghai this past July. He pointed to China\u2019s initiative to inject AI into sectors from health to home goods and hailed its push to embed AI in manufacturing as a \u201cshining hallmark of Chinese modernization.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Already more than 700 million people use AI in China, according to official statistics. And the plan to weave AI across manufacturing, industry and daily life also requires massive amounts of compute.\n <\/p>\n

\n Beijing last month announced a $560 billion plan to rapidly scale up information infrastructure, including computing facilities, over the next five years. Private tech companies are also ramping up<\/a> investment in AI infrastructure, though they still trail their Silicon Valley peers by a longshot.\n <\/p>\n

\n Such investment from listed Chinese companies will double this year to around $139 billion, according to research firm<\/a> Rhodium Group. But that is still less than one-fifth of the $800 billion in AI data center investment from their US peers.\n <\/p>\n

\n And that\u2019s not the only bottleneck.\n <\/p>\n

\n Chinese firms face another critical challenge: limits on the amount of high-end hardware available to fill these centers. Washington\u2019s export bans restrict their access to the best AI chips, like certain models from Nvidia and AMD, while Beijing has restricted imports of some less powerful options. Domestic chipmakers are racing to catch up, but their tech still lags the US \u2013 and supplies of their cutting-edge models are tight.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf you look at the overall production cost of building a data center, chips are the most important factor, and they just don\u2019t have enough,\u201d said Nick Corvino, a researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.\n <\/p>\n

\n But what China lacks in chips and capital, it\u2019s trying make up for with an advantage: ample, affordable power, much of it green.\n <\/p>\n

\n While energy-hungry data centers are straining an aging US grid that\u2019s not expanded significantly in decades, China between 2022 and 2025 added capacity equivalent to that of industrial power sources across the entire US as of the end of 2025.\n <\/p>\n

\n And it has more green power than it can use: the country wasted enough excess green energy in the first six months of 2026 to power the entire country of Mexico for a year, findings from independent research organizations the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and Global Energy Monitor suggest<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\"Sheep<\/p>\n

\"Construction<\/p>\n

\"Power<\/p>\n

\n Beijing wants data centers to sop up that excess \u2013 much of it in western, rural areas where sun, wind and land are plentiful \u2013 while boosting business for its green tech sector, under a plan known as \u201cEastern data, Western compute.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Under that strategy, first launched in 2022, China has designated eight national computing hubs \u2013 including several in its west \u2013 and 10 national data center clusters. Its latest five-year national economic blueprint elevated the linkage further, calling for pairing the build-out of computing infrastructure and green energy.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cChina\u2019s trying to take advantage of the fact that it has this muscle memory for building energy (infrastructure) quickly,\u201d said Kyle Chan, a fellow at the Brookings Institution. \u201cWhereas for the US, we haven\u2019t done this kind of grid buildout in a long time and so we are struggling on the power generation and grid connection front.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Abundant power can also help China make up for its less powerful domestic chips. Chinese chip designers like Huawei are combining clusters of chips to create the computing power of superior tech. The fix can be effective for some tasks, analysts say, but uses significantly more electricity.\n <\/p>\n

\n Observers say that even with ample power, Beijing\u2019s vision has its limits.\n <\/p>\n

\n Some computing hubs in the west are too far away to handle certain tasks at the speeds needed for urban hubs in the densely-populated east. There\u2019s also concern about so-called \u201cghost data centers\u201d or ill-conceived projects in rural areas, built to fit a topline government initiative, yet lacking the hardware<\/a> or users to justify the investment.\n <\/p>\n

\n But in hubs in Inner Mongolia, where optical cables can transmit data to Beijing \u2013 some 200 miles away \u2013 faster than the blink of an eye, and top players are pouring major resources, China\u2019s vision appears to be taking shape.\n <\/p>\n

\n Long one of China\u2019s top coal producers, the wind-swept region bordering Russia and Mongolia has more recently become a hub for green energy.\n <\/p>\n

\n Fields of solar panels blanket parts of Inner Mongolia, while the slender silhouettes of wind turbines spin above grazing sheep. Along some stretches of highway unused turbine blades line the roadsides like giant, fiberglass elephant tusks.\n <\/p>\n

\n In Ulanqab, which falls within one of China\u2019s 10 national data center clusters, nearly half the grid draws from wind and solar \u2013 and some data center providers are finding ways to rely even more heavily on clean sources.\n <\/p>\n

\n Several miles from the thrumming construction of Ulanqab\u2019s Bayin industrial park, the Envision \u201cGalaxy Campus\u201d is running one such model.\n <\/p>\n

\n Spanning more than 20 football fields and slated to be among the world\u2019s largest by area when completed, this data center will be home to servers and chips from tech companies, used to handle queries users input into AI apps in places like Beijing.\n <\/p>\n

\n Upwards of 80% of the power for the facility will come directly from wind farms operated by the company, bypassing the grid completely, Envision says.\n <\/p>\n

\n Battery systems then store wind power, while a cutting-edge solid-state transformer can rapidly adjust how much power is feeding the servers, based on demand, according to Ricky Zheng, the facility\u2019s general manager, who showed CNN around the under-construction campus on a recent day.\n <\/p>\n

\n Water is another key resource that\u2019s sparked backlash against data centers in America, but Zheng says it\u2019s not an issue here. The chilly climate in Ulanqab reduces the need for cooling overall, while the facility is running a so-called \u201czero-water\u201d system that uses industrial alcohol as coolant, he says.\n <\/p>\n

\n Zheng also seemed optimistic when it comes to demand from tech companies for their facilities \u2013 and those clients\u2019 ability to kit out server racks with needed hardware.\n <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n The first phase of the planned total 2GW facility was already fully booked, he said, and the company was building additional phases, both for AI and cloud services.\n <\/p>\n

\n AI chips and servers \u201care owned by our off-takers,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen they give us the order to build such a big data center \u2026 they were confident to have enough infrastructure to be installed in these (server) racks.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n And this company, like Ulanqab itself, is planning to be ready for an expected surge in AI demand in the coming years.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe designed this for the next 10 years,\u201d said Zheng. \u201cYou need to get prepared for the future.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 The area appears like a high-tech mirage. Block after block of hulking data centers \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":880571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,74],"class_list":["post-880570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/880571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}