Overview
- China generated more than twice the electricity the United States did last year, leaving some Chinese data centers paying less than half U.S. power rates, according to reporting cited from the Wall Street Journal.
- Morgan Stanley projects about $560 billion of Chinese grid spending through 2030, and Goldman Sachs forecasts roughly 400 gigawatts of spare capacity by then.
- Beijing’s 2021 ‘East Data, West Computing’ plan is shifting compute to power-rich western regions, with Inner Mongolia emerging as a hub hosting more than 100 data centers in operation or development.
- U.S. data centers could face a major electricity shortfall within three years, Morgan Stanley warns, as industry leaders press Washington to speed grid modernization.
- China’s DeepSeek demonstrated with its R1 model that strong systems can be built without top-tier chips, underscoring that cheaper power and alternative approaches can narrow the AI gap.