Tech war: China sees glut of AI data centres as GPU mismatches exacerbate weak demand

Total computing power in China accounted for 26 per cent of the world’s total as of June, trailing only the US, but CPU usage rates are low

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A staff member checks equipment at a China Mobile data centre in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, May 24, 2022. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 7:00am, 11 Oct 2024

China’s rush to build a nationwide network of artificial intelligence (AI) data centres is running the risk of creating an oversupply of computing power, experts and industry professionals said.

Data from CCID Consulting, a government-backed think tank focused on technology, shows that more than 250 internet data centres have either been built or are under construction in China as of June, as local governments, state-owned telecommunications network operators and private investors pour money into the “new infrastructure”.

Many of these artificial intelligence (AI) computing facilities are also located in areas far from the nation’s technology centres.

Total computing power in China reached a whopping 246 Eflops as of June this year, according to data published in September by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), an institute affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Eflops is a unit for measuring the speed of a computer system.

That accounted for 26 per cent of the world’s total, trailing only behind the US, according to CAICT.

However, the central processing unit (CPU) use rate of computing resources provided by privately-held servers is less than 5 per cent, according to a research report on the public cloud issued by China’s State Information Centre (SIC), a group affiliated with the National Development and Reform Commission. Experts warn of an impending glut of computing power as many data centres sit idle due to lack of demand.