Global Computing Power Enters a New Wave of Enthusiasm: AI Rekindles Industry-Policy Synergy - Analysis Report on the Development Trends of Intelligent Computing Power Industry
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On March 2 local time, Dell Technologies, a PC and server manufacturer, surged by 31.62%, hitting a record high since its U.S. IPO in 2019, as its earnings report exceeded market expectations, citing growing demand for AI servers. After Dell raised its 2027 global AI server TAM forecast, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index surged by 4.29%, further validating the spillover effect of AI servers on AI hardware.
Among other AI companies, Nvidia closed up 4%, with its market cap surpassing $2 trillion; Super Micro Computer benefited from its inclusion in the S&P 500, with its after-hours stock price jumping 12.5%; AMD's stock price reached a historic high.
Over the weekend, the most significant news in the AI industry was Elon Musk's formal lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman. Musk accused them of breach of contract, violation of fiduciary duties, and unfair business practices, demanding OpenAI revert to an open-source model.
Additionally, on February 29, at Bosch Group's BCW event, Musk commented on the rapid advancement of AI technology, stating, "AI is progressing incredibly fast—I’ve never seen any technology develop this quickly." On March 1, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also predicted that artificial general intelligence (AGI) could emerge within five years by certain definitions.
Zheshang Securities analyzed that the new quality productive forces essentially represent advanced productivity, driven by innovation and capable of significantly improving total factor productivity. Generative AI is expected to bring a leap in social productivity, marking the beginning of the "Fourth Industrial Revolution." The foundation of industrial development lies in ample and low-cost computing power supply. From this perspective, China's push for domestic computing power development is imperative.
According to China Business News, a construction manager at a state-owned operator's computing power center revealed, "The civil engineering phase of the computing power center is complete, and we’ve moved to the electromechanical design stage." "We are currently booking GPU chips." Overall, Guosheng Securities believes that after a brief "plateau period," the global computing power industry is once again experiencing heightened enthusiasm.
In terms of the industrial chain and companies, according to reports from Zheshang Securities and China Merchants Securities, key components and facilities include: Haiguang Information, Cambricon, Huafeng Technology, Zhuoyi Information, and Shuguang Digital Innovation; server companies include: Gaoxin Development, Sugon, Digital China, Inspur Information, Unisplendour Corporation, Topway Information, Chinasoft International, FiberHome Telecommunication, Advanced Digital Technology, Great Wall, GRG Banking, and Tefa Information.
All-in-one machine companies include: Capcloud, Hengwei Technology, Cloudwalk, iFLYTEK, Nanwei Software, and Chinasoft International; computing power scheduling companies include: Hengwei Technology, S-Tech, Xcceleration Data, Senyuan Shares, and Vastsea Depth; software application companies include: Chinasoft International, Kylinsec, SIE Information, and Hand Information.
With the deepening development of the digital economy, technological innovation has increasingly become the main driver of economic growth. Especially with the breakthrough development of AI technologies like ChatGPT and AIGC, not only has it accelerated the digital and intelligent transformation and upgrading across industries, but it has also spurred explosive growth in computing power demand.
When computing power is applied across various industries, different levels of computing precision need to "adapt" to diverse application scenarios. Particularly with the rapid advancement of AI technology, the structure of computing power has evolved, leading to an increasing demand for intelligent computing power.
2023 marks the first year of digital economy development, with digital transformation becoming a new driver of China's economic growth. Institutions predict that by 2025, China's digital economy scale will exceed 60 trillion yuan, presenting vast opportunities in the industrial chain. Computing power is a major theme that can persist throughout 2023, with chips being the core of computing power. Computing power demand accelerates the iteration process of optical modules. Behind the upgrading and iteration of models lies the training and inference of massive data. Since 2012, global computing power demand has experienced rapid growth. However, the application and development of AI face the "barrel effect," meaning data exchange between computing power server clusters requires supporting network interconnections within data centers. This has spurred significant demand for high-speed optical modules, driving the development of the optical module industry.
In the era of computing power, data centers have become major energy consumers. The upgrade of optical module technology is not just about doubling the speed but also addressing issues such as high power consumption and increased costs that come with higher speeds. Solutions like LPO, CPO, silicon photonics, and thin-film lithium niobate are expected to become breakthroughs in solving these challenges.
Trends and Investment in the Intelligent Computing Power Industry
The rapid expansion of computing power can also serve as a new engine for economic growth.
Computing power empowers the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, accelerating the emergence of integrated applications. Currently, China's computing power industry has begun to take shape, with upstream, midstream, and downstream enterprises collaborating to form a positive interaction. As computing power increasingly penetrates sectors such as government affairs, industry, transportation, and healthcare, the deep integration of the internet, big data, and AI with the real economy has sparked vibrant new applications and business models. Computing power is empowering industries to advance in-depth and has become a crucial lever for the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. The general public is also experiencing tangible changes brought by computing power in their daily lives," said a relevant official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
The industrial chain is becoming increasingly complete, and the computing power ecosystem continues to optimize. Upstream industries, composed of facility, equipment, and software suppliers, midstream industries, including basic telecommunications, data centers, and cloud service providers, and downstream industries, such as industrial, financial, and internet users, collaborate synergistically, forming a virtuous cycle.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology official stated that China currently leads in overall supply capacity, with continuous improvements in the performance of general-purpose and edge servers. The competitiveness of domestic server brands is steadily increasing, and the production of computing products like servers, computers, and smartphones ranks first globally.
In recent years, with the rapid development of the digital economy and the widespread application of information technology, computing power has become a vital pillar of social development. China's total computing power has grown at an average annual rate of nearly 30% over the past five years, reaching 197 trillion floating-point operations per second, ranking second globally. However, traditional computing power methods often come with high energy consumption and emissions, making the push for green and low-carbon development a consensus in the industry and a demand of the times.
Institutional data shows that up to 30% of servers in commercial and enterprise data centers are in a "comatose" state, consuming power without providing useful information services. To address this, some tech companies have begun innovating by optimizing existing computing power resources.
Analysis of the Development Prospects of the Computing Power Industry The application scenarios of the computing power industry are becoming increasingly diverse, covering a wide range of fields. In areas such as smart manufacturing, smart cities, smart finance, smart healthcare, and smart education, the computing power industry plays a crucial role. At the same time, with the widespread adoption and application of new technologies like 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT), the application scenarios of the computing power industry will further expand and deepen.
With the rapid development of the computing power industry, the competitive landscape is gradually becoming clearer. Leading domestic and international companies are increasing their R&D investments, launching more advanced, efficient, and intelligent computing power products and services to compete for market share. Meanwhile, emerging companies are continuously emerging, intensifying market competition.
As global data volumes explode, the demand for computing power is growing at an unprecedented rate. According to relevant data, the global computing power scale has maintained rapid growth in recent years. It is projected that by 2025, the global computing power scale will reach 330 EFLOPS (330 trillion floating-point operations per second), with an average annual growth rate exceeding 50%. Simultaneously, the market size of the computing power industry is also expanding, becoming a vital component of the global information technology sector.
Smart Computing Power Industry Market Opportunities
In today's era, the digital transformation and upgrading of the economy and society are accelerating. The demand for computing power driven by new technologies and applications such as 5G, big data, and artificial intelligence is increasing. The supporting role of computing power in economic and social development is becoming more prominent.
Facing the new opportunities brought by the development of computing power, we should actively promote the construction of computing power networks, effectively empowering the digital transformation of various industries and fields. We aim to build intelligent, efficient, inclusive, convenient, green, low-carbon, secure, stable, and mutually beneficial computing power networks, continuously strengthening the "computing power foundation" that supports the digital transformation of the economy and society. John Hoffman, CEO of the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), stressed that digital transformation is reshaping every aspect of life. With the emergence of new technologies and services, there is a need to handle the ever-increasing volumes of data.
International cooperation is crucial for advancing computing power networks. Collaboration on a global scale will not only accelerate innovation but also help address the challenges posed by new technological developments. Strong partnerships among different stakeholders will directly benefit society as a whole.
With the continuous advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, more industries are adopting AI applications, such as autonomous driving, medical image analysis, and intelligent customer service. An increasing number of enterprises are undergoing digital transformation, treating data as a core asset for management and utilization.
Intelligent computing power, as a vital tool for data processing and analysis, will play a significant role in digital transformation. The widespread adoption of cloud computing and edge computing will further drive the development of the intelligent computing power market. Cloud computing provides large-scale computing resources, while edge computing meets the demands for low latency and high reliability, both offering broad application scenarios for intelligent computing power.
In a highly competitive market, the ability of enterprises and investors to make timely and effective decisions is key to success. The computing power industry report by China Research Network provides a detailed analysis of the current development, competitive landscape, and market supply-demand dynamics of China's computing power industry. It also examines the opportunities and challenges faced by the industry from the perspectives of policy, economic, social, and technological environments.