South Korean media: China's AI investment plan focuses on domestic semiconductors and technology

According to a report by South Korean media outlet JoongAng Ilbo (Japanese edition) on June 11, China will launch a large-scale investment initiative over the next five years, investing approximately 2 trillion RMB (about 47 trillion JPY) to build artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and computing infrastructure.

Bloomberg cited multiple sources on the 10th, stating that China has formulated a national plan for constructing an AI computing hub network.

Under this plan, more than 80% of the semiconductors and core technologies required for AI data centers will be procured from domestic companies such as Huawei. This will significantly reduce reliance on products from U.S. firms like NVIDIA and AMD, with the aim of establishing an indigenous AI ecosystem.

The newly constructed data centers will be operated by state-owned telecom enterprises including China Mobile and China Telecom, which will connect computing resources across regions into a networked system.

In the initial phase, corporate funding will primarily come from special government bonds and the National Strategic Industry Investment Fund, with expected use of bank loans and private capital as well.

The industry views this initiative as a pivotal turning point in enhancing China’s competitiveness in artificial intelligence.

Charlie Dai, analyst at Forrester Research, predicted that building a nationwide computing network would improve enterprises’ access to high-performance computing resources, support AI model development, and promote the adoption of proactive and physical AI.

This project is part of China’s government-led “Six Major National Infrastructure Networks” construction plan and has also been included in the 15th Five-Year Plan covering 2026–2030. The six infrastructure networks include water supply networks, power grids, computing networks, next-generation communication networks, urban underground pipelines, and logistics networks.

However, compared to investments made by major U.S. tech companies in artificial intelligence, the scale remains relatively small.

Bloomberg reported that major U.S. companies such as Meta and Microsoft plan to invest around $725 billion (approximately 116 trillion JPY) in artificial intelligence alone this year.

Nevertheless, China’s labor, construction, and component procurement costs are lower than those in the United States, and since these 2 trillion RMB investments do not include contributions from private enterprises like Alibaba and Tencent, the actual investment impact is expected to be even greater.

Meanwhile, China is considering investing over 5 trillion RMB to connect the AI industry with the power grid, with these projects being advanced separately from AI data center construction.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1867745446664204/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.