China targets fourfold boost in AI computing capacity by 2030 in major tech push

China aims to quadruple its artificial intelligence computing capacity by 2030 in a major tech push, according to a plan released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Monday. The country plans to achieve 9,800 exa floating-point operations per second (eflops) of intelligent computing capacity by 2030, up from 2,185 eflops by the end of June 2023, a 177% increase.

To reach this target, Beijing intends to invest 3.8 trillion yuan (US$532 billion) in information infrastructure from 2026 to 2030 and deploy intelligent computing clusters with 10,000 graphics processing cards or those employing 100,000 or more cards. The plan also calls for the development of inference computing facilities tailored to specific applications and a shift towards home-grown computing chips.

China is already building 52 intelligent computing facilities with more than 10,000 accelerator cards. The country's AI workloads have surged, with average daily token usage rising from 100 billion in early 2024 to 140 trillion in March 2023. However, adoption is hampered by fragmented software ecosystems and compatibility issues.

China's intelligent computing capacity is concentrated in eight national hubs, with more than 80% of the capacity located there. The plan also outlines priorities for the next generation of communications networks, including commercial 6G services, deeper integration of 5G with the BeiDou satellite navigation system, and wider use of embedded SIM cards (eSIMs).