Data Island: China's Response to U.S. Stargate

China has been working to construct and connect its own AI data centers in response to the United States’ AI data center project ‘Stargate.’

According to the British Financial Times on the 21st (local time), China is building a large-scale data center in Wuhu City, an agricultural city in Anhui Province. The ‘Data Island,’ being developed on a 3-square-kilometer island, will house four new AI data centers operated by Huawei, China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile.

This effort follows the Chinese authorities’ attempt to offset U.S. controls on AI chip exports to China, which accounts for nearly three-fourths of global computing power. The new data centers are being constructed near densely populated areas and are expected to focus on AI inference.

In Wuhu, Anhui Province—close to Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Nanjing—15 companies have so far built data centers. The total investment amounts to 270 billion yuan (approximately 52 trillion Korean won). A source from a company explained that the Wuhu government supports up to 30% of AI chip procurement costs, calling this a favorable condition compared to other regions.

A supplier involved in the project introduced it as “building a Chinese version of Stargate.” OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle previously established the AI joint venture Stargate and agreed to invest over 500 billion U.S. dollars in U.S. AI infrastructure facilities over the next four years.