The Global Digital Economy Conference 2024 revealed China’s impressive compute capacity, with over 8.1 million datacenter racks boasting a combined processing power of 230 exaFLOPS. Plans to boost this to 300 exaFLOPS by 2025 were also unveiled, though the strategy for adding the additional 70 exaFLOPS remains unclear.
One key player in this growth is Shanghai-based Yovole Network, which has partnered with Tesla to integrate advanced technologies like hydrogen energy and Megapack energy storage at its computing center. In an interesting turn of events, Tesla’s electric vehicles were approved for public sector use in China, following the EU’s imposition of tariffs on Chinese EV-makers.
Despite potential restrictions for international businesses aiding China’s compute capacity goals, Beijing sees this expansion as a driver for economic transformation, particularly benefiting rural areas through wider AI workload deployment. The collaboration between Chinese and foreign entities in this field reflects China’s commitment to fostering a competitive and inclusive business environment.