The Unlikely Place at the Center of China’s AI Boom
wired ·
Ulanqab, a city in Inner Mongolia, has become a major hub for AI data centers in China, attracting nearly 100 such facilities since 2016. The city's appeal lies in its cheap energy, abundant land, cool climate, and proximity to Beijing, leading companies to pledge 12.5 gigawatts of capacity, with over 70% of that announced in the past year. Chinese AI firms including DeepSeek, ByteDance, and Alibaba are now investing in their own infrastructure there instead of renting from cloud providers. However, the region faces significant water scarcity, forcing the local water company to shut off waterworks for seven hours each night. Latency issues that once plagued these remote data centers have been largely resolved by dedicated fiber optic cables. The region still relies on coal for roughly 37% of its electricity, although the government sees the data center boom as a way to absorb excess renewable energy. Experts caution that the transition to renewables is uncertain, but the area may eventually be fully powered by clean energy.
wired