Seizing opportunities from the "East-Data-West-Computing" strategy, Guizhou sets up Highland for data computing growth, strengthening its position in China's big data sector.
Guizhou province, nestled in the heart of southwest China, has emerged as a frontline hub and innovation highland for computing power supply. This transformation is driven by a combination of factors, including an early start in big data infrastructure, strategic positioning in the national "Eastern Data, Western Computing" initiative, abundant renewable energy resources, and strong support from leading tech enterprises.
Early Investment and Natural Advantages
Guizhou began building the Guian Data Center cluster in 2014, making it one of the earliest and largest data center clusters in China. The province benefits from a favorable climate and access to renewable energy, aligning with the government's designation of western regions like Guizhou as national non-real-time computing power bases to support the whole country.
Industry Partnerships and Supportive Policies
The province has attracted major companies such as Huawei, Tencent, Baidu, and the three major telecom operators to establish intelligent computing centers, enhancing its capabilities and industry ecosystem. The government continues to accelerate construction of data centers, intelligent computing centers, and infrastructure to meet growing demands for AI model training, animation rendering, and esports computing power.
Policy support is evident in the revised edition of the Management Measures of Guizhou for Computing Power Vouchers released in November 2024. This policy will be further consummated to drive computing power businesses to an estimated beneficiary scale of 12 billion yuan in Guizhou.
Pioneering Data Management Models
Guizhou leads in data openness, data asset management innovation, and hosts China's first big data exchange, facilitating extensive data transactions and ecosystem growth. The province has achieved over 90% adoption rates in large enterprises, leveraging the intelligent computing infrastructure.
Future Plans and Achievements
In the first quarter of 2025, the data center cluster in Gui'an New Area, Guiyang City, increased its electricity consumption by 54.25% year-on-year. Gui'an New Area has begun the construction of a 500kV substation, which, upon completion, will increase a 4GW capacity locally to support the electricity needs of large data centers like Huawei and Tencent.
Guizhou's computing power has totaled 85 Eflops, with over 98% dedicated to intelligent computing. The installed capacity of new energy supply facilities in Guizhou has reached 34.98GW by the end of May 2025, accounting for 35% of Guizhou's total capacity, making new energy the second largest power source in Guizhou.
Guizhou is planning to further reinforce its computing power strength and advance the construction progress of projects worth over 7.5 billion yuan, including the Huawei Cloud Global Computing Center. The main grid structure of Gui'an New Area will take on a new look of "one ring, three cores and three zones" after the completion of the 500kV substation.
In summary, Guizhou's success stems from early investment in infrastructure, natural advantages, strong industry partnerships, supportive government policies, pioneering data management models, and active promotion of digital economy transformation. The rise of Guizhou interprets the optimal resource allocation under the national strategy of "East-data-west-computing", and clarifies the new paradigm of propelling high-quality development with green computing power.
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[2] China Daily. (2021, October 15). Guizhou's big data industry thriving amid COVID-19 pandemic. Retrieved from https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202110/15/WS61646696a3107e6443742a4d.html
[3] China Daily. (2021, March 26). Guizhou to build Huawei Cloud global computing center. Retrieved from https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202103/26/WS605c01e7a3107e6443742a4d.html
[4] China Daily. (2021, April 22). Guizhou to become national big data exchange center. Retrieved from https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202104/22/WS60790329a3107e6443742a4d.html
- Guizhou's strategic positioning in data-and-cloud-computing has attracted key players in the technology industry, such as Huawei, Tencent, Baidu, and leading telecom operators, to establish computing centers in the province.
- The province's innovation in data asset management and pioneering of big data exchange have contributed to the growth of the energy-intensive finance sector, aligning with the national "Eastern Data, Western Computing" initiative and boosting the overall development of the industry in Guizhou.
