Reference News Network, September 23 report: According to the website of the UK's Financial Times on September 21, the "China Digital Island" planned along the Yangtze River with an area of about 4600 mu (approximately 3 square kilometers) is an effort by China to consolidate its position as a superpower in artificial intelligence (AI).

A senior executive from a local project supplier said that this project located in Wuhu City, Anhui Province, aims to "create a Chinese version of 'Stargate'." He referred to the "Stargate" as a large artificial intelligence data center planned to be built in Texas, USA, by OpenAI, Oracle Corporation, and SoftBank Group, with an investment of 500 billion US dollars.

The "super cluster" in Wuhu cannot match the scale of the U.S. project. It is just one of China's initiatives to strengthen management of its domestically dispersed data centers, aiming to better meet the surging demand for artificial intelligence among consumers.

This move comes against the backdrop of the United States having a leading advantage in accessing artificial intelligence computing power.

The Chinese government previously announced a plan requiring active promotion of the migration of artificial intelligence model training from the east to the west.

At the same time, China is building new server clusters near major population centers. These clusters will focus on "inference," the process by which artificial intelligence tools generate responses. Due to their proximity to users, these server clusters can enable faster artificial intelligence applications.

Ryan Fidler, a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute and former China advisor at the U.S. Department of State, said: "China is beginning to prioritize the allocation of scarce computing resources to achieve maximum economic output. The Chinese government has taken this into account when planning data center infrastructure."

The "China Digital Island" in Wuhu is an example, with multiple newly built artificial intelligence data centers there.

The data centers in Wuhu will serve cities in the Yangtze River Delta region, such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Suzhou.

Data shows that so far, 15 companies have built data centers within the city, with a total investment of 270 billion yuan.

China is also trying to better utilize existing artificial intelligence processors in idle facilities in remote areas.

A construction boom that began in 2022 has concentrated these facilities in provinces rich in energy but geographically remote, such as Gansu and Inner Mongolia.

However, due to a lack of professional expertise and insufficient market demand, the utilization rate of these facilities is not high.

Edison Li, an analyst at Jefferies Group, said, "If servers are not actually migrated, it is necessary to find a technical solution, which is to connect the data centers together."

The Chinese government has required the use of advanced technology to connect different processors scattered in multiple locations, forming a computing power cluster. (Translated by Qing Songzhu)

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7553085821033792036/

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