Bloomberg · 2026-06-09 · major
Bloomberg: China Drafts a Five-Year, 2 Trillion Yuan ($295B) Nationwide AI Data Center Buildout — National Development and Reform Commission Blueprint Would Have China Mobile and China Telecom Operate Interconnected Compute Hubs and Source 80% of AI Chips From Huawei and Other Domestic Vendors, Squeezing Out Nvidia and AMD
Bloomberg reports a 2 trillion yuan, five-year state plan to wire together a nationwide AI compute network using domestic chips. State telcos operate it; Huawei and local vendors supply 80% of the silicon.
Beijing plans a $295B, five-year buildout to wire China's AI clusters together — and to do it without Nvidia.
Key specs
| Investment | $295B |
|---|---|
| Yuan | 2T |
| Timeframe | 5 years |
| Domestic chip share target | 80% |
| Current china compute | 1.59M PFLOPS |
| Operational ai clusters | 42 |
What is it?
Bloomberg reports that China's National Development and Reform Commission is drafting a five-year, 2 trillion yuan ($295 billion) blueprint to connect the country's regional AI data centers into a single nationwide compute network. State telecom giants China Mobile and China Telecom would operate the bulk of the sites, with major hubs targeted in Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, and Gansu and a unified national system aimed at 2028.
How does it work?
Funding leans on ultra-long-term central-government bonds and state investment funds, topped up with bank loans and private capital. The plan would require at least 80% of AI silicon and core infrastructure to come from domestic suppliers — Huawei first, alongside other Chinese chipmakers — effectively locking Nvidia and AMD out of the new buildout. It is described as a key prong of Beijing's earlier 'Six Networks' program, which spans water, power, transport, and compute infrastructure.
Why does it matter?
China already runs about 1.59 million PFLOPS of compute across roughly 42 AI clusters, ranking second globally. A unified, domestic-chip-only blueprint at this scale codifies the decoupling that US export controls have been pushing toward and turns Huawei's Ascend roadmap into a national-scale procurement commitment. For Nvidia and AMD, it is the most explicit signal yet that the Chinese AI capex cycle is no longer addressable. For US hyperscalers, $295B over five years is small versus the ~$725B Meta and Microsoft alone are spending in 2026 — but the political message is the comparison.
Who is it for?
AI infra investors, semiconductor analysts, policymakers, and anyone modelling China's AI compute trajectory