Hubei Province Sees Significant Growth in AI Computing Orders at the Start of the Year: Current Development Status of Intelligent Computing Industry in 2024
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As data becomes a new factor of production and AI emerges as a new production tool, enterprises in Hubei Province are experiencing a surge in demand for 'computing power.' Entering 2024, China Mobile Hubei's AI computing orders have seen substantial growth, with over 100 companies booking intelligent computing services. These services span industries such as autonomous driving, smart manufacturing, drug development, weather forecasting, engineering design, and language processing, marking the accelerated arrival of an era where 'computing power' empowers all sectors.
On January 8, 2024, the China Mobile Intelligent Computing Center (Wuhan) commenced operations in Wuhan's Optical Valley Future Science and Technology City. This is China Mobile's first regional hub node to become operational nationwide, serving as a base in Wuhan while extending its influence to Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi provinces. The center currently offers a service capacity of 1,500 PFLOPS (1 PFLOPS = 1 quadrillion floating-point operations per second). By the end of this year, the center is expected to expand to 6,800 PFLOPS, becoming the largest intelligent computing facility in Central China.
Computing power refers to the ability of computer devices or data centers to process information, encompassing the combined performance of hardware and software in executing computational tasks. The term 'computility' is derived from the root 'compu-' (denoting computation) and '-utility' (meaning effectiveness or practicality), collectively representing computational capability.
Computing power requires quantification, and the metrics vary depending on the type of information processed. For instance:
- High-performance computing measures power in double-precision floating-point operations per second (FLOPS).
- AI scenarios use single-precision, half-precision, or integer operations.
- Bitcoin mining quantifies power in hash collisions per second, reflecting the speed of hash function outputs.
- High-throughput scenarios measure power in bytes processed per second.
According to the National Data Resource Survey Report, global data production reached 67 zettabytes (ZB) in 2021, with an average annual growth rate exceeding 26% over the past three years.
Analysis of the Development Status and Market Size of Intelligent Computing Power Industry
With digital technologies extending from the consumer sector to the production sector and from the virtual economy to the real economy, computing power networks—digital information infrastructure based on cloud and centered on networks—are becoming the foundation for new technologies and applications such as industrial internet, artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, the Internet of Things, and the metaverse. Data shows that China's total data output has been increasing year by year, reaching 6.6ZB in 2021. By the first half of 2022, China's total data output reached 4.13ZB.
According to the 2021-2022 Global Computing Power Index Evaluation Report, for every 1-point increase in a country's computing power index, its digital economy and GDP will grow by 3.5‰ and 1.8‰, respectively. When a country's computing power index reaches 40 or 60 points, the driving force of computing power on GDP growth will increase by 1.5 times and 3.0 times, respectively. The 2022-2023 China Artificial Intelligence Computing Power Development Evaluation Report points out that China's AI computing power continues to grow rapidly, with intelligent computing power reaching 268 exaflops per second (EFLOPS) in 2022, surpassing general-purpose computing power. It is estimated that the compound annual growth rate of China's intelligent computing power scale will reach 52.3% in the next five years.
The Global Computing Power Index Evaluation Report shows that China ranks second globally with a total score of 70. Companies actively involved in the computing power sector include Montage Technology, TFC Optical Communication, and ZTE. By the end of 2022, China's total computing power scale reached 180 exaflops per second, and its total storage capacity exceeded 1000EB (1 trillion GB). The one-way network latency between national hub nodes has been reduced to less than 20 milliseconds, and the core computing power industry scale reached 1.8 trillion yuan. By June 2023, Hunan Province's total computing power had increased to 4000 petaflops (PF), with computing power support evolving from single foundational functions to comprehensive empowerment.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) reported that as of 2023, the country's total computing power scale reached 197 EFLOPS, ranking second globally. China has introduced a series of policy measures to accelerate the construction and application of computing power infrastructure, driving rapid development in the computing power industry. The total scale of data center racks nationwide exceeds 7.6 million, with continuous expansion in computing power capacity. China's computing power industry has taken initial shape, with its production of computing products ranking first globally. High-performance computing chips are iterating and upgrading, while computing power applications are deeply integrated into government affairs, industry, transportation, healthcare, and other fields. The MIIT will accelerate the construction of a national integrated computing power network hub, promote efficient coordination of computing resources, increase R&D investment, support industrial collaboration across sectors, and cultivate various application scenarios.
On October 20, 2023, the Computing Power New Ecosystem Forum of the 2023 World VR Industry Conference was held in Honggutan, Nanchang. The "Jiangxi Province Computing Power White Paper (2022)" was released, showing that Jiangxi's computing power scale is approximately 3,600 PFlops, accounting for about 2.57% of the national total and ranking 12th nationwide. Basic computing power accounts for about 78% of the province's total, intelligent computing power for about 21%, and supercomputing power for about 1%. In 2022, the core digital economy industries in Jiangxi achieved an added value of 267.87 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.8%, accounting for 8.4% of GDP.
Future Development Trends in Intelligent Computing Power
In the development of the digital economy, computing power is the core productive force, and investment in computing power has a long-term multiplier effect on economic growth. As key information technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, and AR/VR gradually mature, numerous intelligent scenarios will be realized in society. According to a Roland Berger report, AI technology will drive the effective implementation of scenarios such as autonomous driving, smart offices, and intelligent healthcare. IoT technology will promote smart firefighting, smart factories, smart farms, and smart homes. Blockchain technology will be applied to digital certificates, information encryption, and other scenarios, while AR/VR technology can enable smart shopping malls, gaming, and smart classrooms.
These scenarios will achieve leapfrog development in industrial sectors, facilitate innovation across industries, enhance the degree of industrial digitalization, and invigorate market vitality. In the governmental domain, they will help improve operational efficiency, elevate urban management standards, and strengthen residents' quality of life. In the civil affairs sector, they will promote social welfare, create livable spaces, and realize sustainable development, collectively driving society toward an intelligent future.