China · Donald Trump · U.S. · BBC Technology
A new skyline of data centres is rising from the rolling plains of rural China
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In the expansive grasslands of Inner Mongolia, farmers are picking plump potatoes alongside new neighbours: huge, rectangular blocks that will fuel China's AI platforms.
Key facts
- It's not as open as I wish," says Professor Liu Jun, Department of Statistics and Data Science at Tsinghua University
- AI developer Dang Ronghao, 27, who works for a leading tech company says Chinese campuses are becoming more open, allowing him to talk to researchers all over the world from his base in Shanghai
- The reporter has seen research combining AI with nuclear fusion, AI with astrophysics, AI with new materials, and AI with the development of new drugs
- The screen on his phone is smashed, and wifi comes from a pocket dongle for which he pays over 40 yuan a month
Summary
Ulanqab, with its steppes and volcanoes, is an unlikely digital frontier. Hundreds of workers in yellow helmets carry heavy equipment into the building site as welding sparks fly off metal scaffolding. "This is China speed," jokes one worker. "An infrastructure maniac," is how he describes his country, laughing as he walks away. Artifical intelligence sits at the heart of China's contest with the United States and the key to it is the computing power inside the data centres here.