Samuel Boivin | Null Photo | Getty Images
alibaba China Telecom and China Telecom will open a data center in southern China powered by the e-commerce giant’s own chips as China ramps up its focus on homegrown AI infrastructure.
The facility, announced Tuesday, will be equipped with 10,000 of Alibaba’s Zhenwu semiconductors designed for AI training and inference, and will have the ability to support AI models hundreds of billions of parameters in size.
These are among the largest models out there, highlighting how China’s largest tech companies are advancing their own AI semiconductor technology as the Chinese government ramps up efforts to become self-sufficient.
Over the past few years, the United States has sought to restrict China’s access to key semiconductor technologies, including China’s AI chips. Nvidiawhich accelerated the country’s efforts to develop domestic alternatives.
Alibaba, one of China’s largest tech companies, designs its own chips through its T-head unit. The Hangzhou-based company is also one of China’s largest cloud computing players. It designs chips, builds data centers, develops its own AI models, and sells them through its cloud computing arm. Cloud computing has been one of the fastest growing businesses in recent quarters.
In China, attention is being focused on building large-scale data centers that utilize domestic technology. Last month, a computing cluster built with Huawei’s advanced Ascend 910C AI chip went online.
While U.S. tech giants are expected to spend about $700 billion this year to boost AI development, Chinese companies are taking a different approach. They are focusing AI on industries where they believe it will reduce expenses and drive revenue growth and return on investment.
China Telecom and Alibaba say their data center in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province, China, is expected to expand to 100,000 chips. The computing cluster could be used in industries ranging from healthcare to advanced materials, they added.
