The Chinese government has unveiled a new plan to significantly boost the country’s computing power capabilities by 2025. The goal is to increase China’s total computing power by more than 50% to reach 300 exaflops (quintillion floating-point operations per second) within the next two years.
This ambitious target comes as China seeks to gain an edge over the United States in critical high-tech sectors like artificial intelligence, supercomputing, semiconductors and more. There is rising competition between the two countries across these strategic industries.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), China’s current computing power stands at 197 exaflops as of 2022. While this already ranks China second globally behind the U.S., the new roadmap aims to rapidly expand this capacity.
Major Investments Planned for AI-Ready Data Centers Across China
A key focus of the plan is to build out more advanced data centers across China to provide businesses with greater access to robust computing power needed for AI development. Currently, AI training requires massive computing resources in the range of tens of exaflops.
China aims to improve its national data center infrastructure, especially in lesser populated western provinces. For example, Guizhou has been tasked with establishing massive data hubs to power China’s internet. Several major tech companies like Apple have already set up data centers in the region.
Optimizing National Computer Network for Faster AI Progress
The new plan also emphasizes optimizing the speed and efficiency of China’s national computation network. It sets a target for transmission speeds between critical data facilities to have a latency of under 5 milliseconds. Additionally, you can also read about- Microsoft Surface and AI Event: What to Expect for the Future of Computing?
With these goals and investments, China aims to rapidly advance its AI capabilities and lead the world in leveraging artificial intelligence for economic and technological progress. The plan demonstrates the country’s strong determination to achieve supremacy in strategic high-tech sectors of the future.
