China and the United States may be competing for dominance in artificial intelligence, but some Chinese manufacturers are seeing an opportunity in building American data centers.
“We see huge potential in the U.S. market,” said SK Lee, global vice president of Singapore-registered AI infrastructure company Brightray. “The Chinese market is equally important, but we see stronger demand in the United States.”
Brightray’s only manufacturer is PrefabDC, a Chinese company that makes prefabricated data centers. Brightray manages the construction of your buildout.
Despite growing public opposition to the proliferation of AI data centers, the United States boasts more AI data centers than any other country, reaching 5,427 by 2025, according to data released by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. China had 449 cases, according to the same report.
US tech giants are alphabet, microsoft, meta and Amazon It is estimated that approximately $765 billion will be spent on AI infrastructure this year. JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon recently said that number could reach $1 trillion next year.
This is what Chinese companies look like alibaba The commitment is much less. But while the Chinese government has outlined plans to invest $295 billion in data center construction over the next five years, it still falls far short of U.S. private investment.
“Chinese companies don’t make a lot of money from AI services,” said Jeffrey Ding, an AI expert and assistant professor at George Washington University. “And that’s one of the reasons why we can’t invest in the massive data center expansions that our U.S. competitors are doing.”
Ding said the more serious problem is that “there’s not a lot of demand for AI services.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump arrive for military inspection at the White House Rose Garden in Washington, September 24, 2026.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington has put a renewed focus on trade dynamics between China and the United States, and AI was a key element in Xi’s meeting with President Donald Trump.
However, relations between the rivals remain rocky.
U.S. policymakers and security officials fear cybersecurity risks and worry that the U.S. could become dependent on China for critical infrastructure and give leverage to a major AI competitor. The Trump administration is considering banning China’s promiscuous AI models and new Chinese data center components.
“The geopolitics between the recent tariffs and the recent bans is a very challenging environment,” said Benjamin Boucher, lead supply chain analyst at Wood Mackenzie. “I think it depends on what happens at the political level over the next few years in terms of how that develops.”
Boucher explained that the United States is facing shortages of key parts such as electrical equipment and doesn’t have much of what it needs domestically. Also, while the U.S. has some parts, lead times are long, and China “can provide them at a more favorable time.”
“China is definitely very important to the U.S. data center supply chain at this point,” Bucher said.
China, the world’s largest manufacturer, is already deeply entrenched in the U.S. supply chain and has been for years. Chinese companies supply products such as transformers, batteries and fiber optic cables.
At its factory in the eastern Chinese trading city of Yangzhou, Brightray’s Li explained how the company benefits from China’s extensive supply chain.
“These materials and equipment are sourced from all over the world, and the majority of them come from China because China’s supply chain is very integrated and comprehensive. That’s why we have a factory here in China,” Li said.
Prefabricated structures are used in the United States, but as Brightray says, they are primarily used for modules inside buildings, rather than modules that include the outside of buildings. This method allows companies to build the majority of their data centers within a controlled environment and protect them from weather and unforeseen events on site.
Industry analysts told CNBC that it takes on average about two to three years to build a data center in the United States. Brightray says prefabricated data centers with PrefabDC can cut construction time by at least half.
