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Tech war: China sees glut of AI data centres as GPU mismatches exacerbate weak demand

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Total computing power in China accounted for 26 per cent of the world’s total as of June, trailing only the US, but CPU usage rates are low

China’s rush to build a nationwide network of artificial intelligence (AI) data centres is running the risk of creating an oversupply of computing power, experts and industry professionals said.

Data from CCID Consulting, a government-backed think tank focused on technology, shows that more than 250 internet data centres have either been built or are under construction in China as of June, as local governments, state-owned telecommunications network operators and private investors pour money into the “new infrastructure”.

Many of these artificial intelligence (AI) computing facilities are also located in areas far from the nation’s technology centres.

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Total computing power in China reached a whopping 246 Eflops as of June this year, according to data published in September by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), an institute affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Eflops is a unit for measuring the speed of a computer system.

That accounted for 26 per cent of the world’s total, trailing only behind the US, according to CAICT.

However, the central processing unit (CPU) use rate of computing resources provided by privately-held servers is less than 5 per cent, according to a research report on the public cloud issued by China’s State Information Centre (SIC), a group affiliated with the National Development and Reform Commission. Experts warn of an impending glut of computing power as many data centres sit idle due to lack of demand.

“In the past few years, with the buildout of new infrastructure, some government-backed companies did build some data centres which now sit idle,” said Helen Fang, head of industrial research at HSBC. “These centres tend to not be located in or around first-tier cities, or are too small in size to meet mainstream demand.”

China’s provincial governments are rushing to support new data centres to spur the local economy, according to an employee of a mainland AI chip start-up, who declined to be named. There is little consideration given to how the data centre could operate after it is built, the person added.

Shan Zhiguang, a director at the State Information Centre, warned in April that many jurisdictions in the country are rushing to build data centres, based on the suppliers’ sales agenda instead of market demand. “The demand for computing power in China is still limited due to the lack of big models-based killer applications,” Shan said. “If built too early and too much, it may create a glut,” he told Chinese media 21st Century Business Herald.

Amid US sanctions that restrict Chinese enterprises from buying advanced chips from suppliers like Nvidia, many of these government-backed projects were given tacit orders to prioritise the use of domestic CPUs, graphics processing units (GPUs) and memory chips over foreign counterparts. That would only aggravate the situation because domestic-made hardware from various brands is more difficult to configure, especially if connected to form large computing clusters consisting more than 10,000 GPUs, according to experts.

Visitors learn about cloud computing at Alibaba’s APSARA Conference 2024, Sept. 19, 2024. Photo: Xinhua

 

In one example, China Mobile’s newest data centre is in Harbin, capital of northeast Heilongjiang province, and runs on 18,000 domestic-made GPUs. Separately, Jixi, a traditional coal-mining city in the province, inked a deal in May with a Hainan construction company to invest 14 billion yuan (US$1.98 billion) to build a data centre using only Chinese suppliers, including Tencent Cloud, AI chip start-up EnFlame, and Chinese chip giant Sugon.

Government-built data centres are often required to use domestic hardware and software together, according to a former manager of SenseTime who works on generative AI-related projects. Domestic GPUs are only compatible with certain models, this person said. So if a company wants to train or use foreign models it has to use Nvidia cards, not government-owned computing resources, the person added.

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

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The 50-year-old code that reshaped the world: Bill Gates on the ‘revolution’ that started Microsoft

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This recent photo provided by Gates Ventures shows Microsoft founder Bill Gates holding a printout of the computer coding that launched the software maker in April 1975. © Ian Allen/AP
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Even as he grows older, Microsoft founder Bill Gates still fondly remembers the catalytic computer code he wrote 50 years ago that opened up a new frontier in technology.

Although the code that Gates printed out on a teletype machine may look crude compared to what’s powering today’s artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, it played a critical role in creating Microsoft in April 1975 – a golden anniversary that the Redmond, Washington, company will celebrate on Friday.

Gates, 69, set the stage for that jubilee with a blog post reminiscing on how he and his old high school friend – the late Paul Allen – scrambled to create the world’s first “software factory” after reading an article in the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics magazine about the Altair 8800, a minicomputer that would be powered by a tiny chip made by the then-obscure technology company, Intel.

The article inspired Gates, who was just a freshman at Harvard University, and Allen to call Altair’s maker, Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, and promise the company’s CEO Ed Roberts they had developed software that would enable consumers to control the hardware.

There was just one hitch: Gates and Allen hadn’t yet come up with the code they promised Roberts.

The coolest code I’ve ever written’

Gates and Allen tackled the challenge by latching onto the BASIC computer language that had been developed in 1964 at Dartmouth College, but they still had to figure out a way to make the technology compatible with the forthcoming Altair computer, even though they didn’t even have a prototype of the machine.

After spending two months working on the program with little sleep, Gates finished the code that became the basis for the Altair’s first operating system.

“That code remains the coolest I’ve ever written,” Gates wrote in his blog post, which includes an option to download the original programme.

The code would go on to provide the foundation for a business that would make personal computers a household staple, with a suite of software that includes the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint programs, as well as the Windows operating system that still powers most PCs today.

“That was the revolution,” Gates said of the code in a video accompanying his post. “That was the thing that ushered in personal computing”.

Gates’ recollection of the code is part of a nostalgic kick that he has been on this year as he prepares to turn 70 in October.

The trip down memory lane included the February release of a memoir exploring his early years as an often-misunderstood child with few friends and a hailing of the 25th anniversary of the philanthropic foundation he created after stepping down as Microsoft’s CEO in 2000.

The tech giant initially stumbled after Gates’ departure but has been thriving under CEO Satya Nadella, and has amassed a market value of about $2.8 trillion (€2.5 trillion).

In his memoir, Gates also reflected on his tempestuous relationship with fellow PC pioneer, the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, whose company will be celebrating its golden anniversary next year.

“Fifty years is a long time,” said Gates, whose personal fortune is estimated at $108 billion (€98 billion). “It’s crazy that the dream came true”.

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Lucid Had Another Record Quarter Thanks To Tesla Owners Who Jumped Ship

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2025 Lucid Air Sapphire © insideEvs.com Copyright
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The American luxury EV maker had its fifth consecutive record quarter.

  • Lucid Motors delivered 3,109 cars in the first quarter.
  • That’s a 28% increase year-over-year.
  • A big reason for the uptick? Tesla owners.

The Lucid Air is a phenomenal machine, albeit a very expensive one. It’s the longest-range electric vehicle on sale today, with up to 512 miles on a full charge. It’s also extremely comfortable, but it costs between $70,000 and $250,000.

Despite the high price tag, the Air just helped Lucid achieve its fifth consecutive record quarter for deliveries. Thanks in no small part to Tesla owners ditching their EVs for other battery-powered cars, Lucid delivered 3,109 units in the first quarter of this year–an impressive increase of 28% over last year.

“Tesla owners always have been a source of customers for us,” said Lucid’s Interim CEO Marc Winterhoff during a Fox Business interview last week. “We saw a dramatic uptick in the last two months. Right now, 50% of all the orders that we have are from Tesla owners.”

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Compared to last year’s fourth quarter, Lucid delivered just 10 more vehicles, but a record is still a record. When it comes to manufacturing, the California-based startup built 2,213 cars at its facility in Casa Grande, Arizona, with an additional 600 units in transit to Saudi Arabia, where they will be assembled at the company’s AMP-2 facility. Compared to Q1 2024, Lucid built 28% more cars in the first quarter of this year.

Deliveries of the new Gravity SUV are yet to begin, with the first demo units scheduled to be finalized by the end of April. As a reminder, Lucid also built a handful of Gravity SUVs late last year, but that was a limited run intended for employees and company friends. In other words, although Lucid doesn’t split the delivery numbers for its two models, all the cars delivered in Q1 were likely Air sedans.

With the Gravity, Lucid is broadening its appeal to a wider audience that may not be so convinced about a luxury electric sedan. “More than 75% of our Gravity orders are from people who don’t own a Lucid,” said Winterhoff. That said, don’t expect Lucid’s first SUV to be affordable. The Gravity Grand Touring starts at $94,900–this gets you up to 450 miles of range on a full charge and seating for up to seven adults. A cheaper Touring trin, which will start from $79,900, will go on sale in late 2025.

Lucid Motors Deliveries

PeriodUnits Delivered
Q4 20221,932
Q1 20231,406
Q2 20231,404
Q3 20231,457
Q4 20231,734
Q1 20241,967
Q2 20242,394
Q3 20242,781
Q4 20243,099
Q1 20253,109

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Ford’s EV, Hybrid Sales Surge In Q1 Ahead Of Tariff Chaos

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Ford Q1 2025 Sales © InsideEVs
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It was a record start to the year for electrified vehicles, mainly led by the Mustang Mach-E. But that could get pricier soon.

  • Ford sold 73,623 electrified models in the U.S. in the first quarter, a 26% year-over-year growth.
  • It was a record start to the year for hybrids, up 33% while Ford’s EVs were up 12%, mainly led by the Mustang Mach-E.
  • Deliveries of the 2025 Mustang Mach-E, with improved range and more features, is imminent. But it could cost substantially more with President Trump’s 25% tariffs.

Ford sold more than half a million vehicles in the U.S. across powertrain types in the first quarter of this year.

While its overall sales sank marginally, electrified vehicles grew 26% year-over-year. Hybrids, plug-in hybrids and fully electric models now together account for 15% of Ford’s overall sales, a 3% jump over last year.

The Dearborn automaker sold 501,291 units in the first quarter, a 1.3% year-over-year drop. Gas-powered vehicles accounted for 427,668 units (85%) of the total sales, whereas fully electric models made up 22,550 units (4.4%) and hybrids totaled 51,073 units (10.1%).

2025 Mustang Mach-E Rally_04

 

Photo by: Ford

The Mustang Mach-E outsold the gas-powered Mustang again and every single Lincoln model on sale. Ford sold 11,607 Mach-Es, a 21% increase year-over-year. By comparison, buyers drove home only 9,377 combustion-engined Mustangs, a sharp 31.6% drop.

Sales of the E-Transit electric van increased nearly 30% to 3,756 units. However, the F-150 Lightningdid not perform as well, even though the overall F-Series trucks grew by 24.5%. Only 7,187 Lightnings found homes so far this year, a 7.1% drop.

By comparison, sales of the Chevy Silverado EVgrew 125% to 2,383 units. General Motors also just launched cheaper versions of the 2026 Sierra EV, which has the potential to put the automaker at the forefront of the electric truck race in the coming months.

However, Ford’s momentum with its electrified models risks stalling as President Trump’s 25% tariffs on imported cars and auto parts went into effect on Wednesday. While most Ford cars are assembled in the U.S., all of them get over half of their parts content from overseas—mostly Mexico—according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

2025 Ford F-150 Lightning with the

 

Photo by: Ford

A whopping 78% of the Mustang Mach-E’s parts are sourced from Mexico and the crossover is also assembled there. Even the hugely popular Bronco Sport and the Maverick are assembled across America’s southern border.

Unless the president provides American automakers with some tariff relief or trade concessions, their momentum risks getting wiped out, at least in the short term.

Have a tip? Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com

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