China is reportedly planning an investment of around CNY2 trillion ($295 billion) over the next five years to build out data centres across the country.
State-owned telecoms operators will be tasked with managing the sites and the vendor Huawei will provide the bulk of the technology.
Bloomberg sources claim government agencies including the National Development and Reform Commission are drafting up plans to construct a network of “inter-connected computing hubs”, as part of a government initiative to boost domestic AI and increase competition with the US.
Operators China Mobile and China Telecom are named as being tasked with operating and connecting the bulk of the data centres, while suppliers including Huawei will be charged with providing at least 80% of the technology including AI chips.
The plan is in line with steps taken in recent years by the state to pump resources into domestic heavyweights like Huawei, effectively squeezing out US competitors such as Nvidia and AMD.
Funding for the plan will mainly come from sovereign debt including long-term special government bonds with more than a 10 year tenure and state funds for investment in strategic industries, added the sources.
In addition to the AI facilities, which will include data centres and faster mobile infrastructure, China also apparently plans to integrate the power grid to the project.
The planned investment figure does not include separate outlays planned by the country’s technology heavyweights including Alibaba and Tencent, added the sources.
Source: Mobile World Live
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