China built hundreds of AI data centers to catch the AI boom. Now many stand unused.

Now, the WeChat Group chat and the industrial group chat a different story. Traders are more confidential in their dealings, and prices have returned to Earth. Meanwhile, two projects for the data center are familiar with them to secure more funding from investors who expect weaknesses, forcing the project to sell the surplus of graphics processing units. He says, “It seems that everyone is selling, but a few of them buy,” he says.

Just months ago, it was a boom in building the data center at its height, supported by both and private investors. However, many newly built facilities are now empty. According to the people on the ground they spoke with Massachusetts Institute Technology Review Technology– Including contractors, CEO of GPU, and project managers – Most of the companies that run these databases are struggling to stay standing on his feet. Local Chinese ports Jiazi Guangni and 36 each It was mentioned that up to 80 % of the newly created computing resources in China are still unused.

Rental processing units on the companies you need to train artificial intelligence models – the main business model for the new wave of data centers – was seen as a certain bet. But with the appearance of Deepseek and a sudden change in the economy about artificial intelligence, this industry stumbled.

“The growing pain industry in China is largely going through as a result of players who lack experience – discord and local governments – on the noise train, and build facilities that are not perfect for today’s needs,” says Jimmy Godrich, the chief technology consultant at Rand.

The result is that the projects fail, the energy is wasted, and the data centers have become “sad assets” their investors are keen to empty at lower rates of market. He says the situation may eventually lead the government’s intervention: “It is possible that the Chinese government will intervene, take it and hand it over to more capable operators.”

Employed mutation mutation

When Chatgpt exploded on the scene in late 2022, the response in China was quickly. The central government has identified the infrastructure of Amnesty International as a national priority, and urged local governments to accelerate the development of the so-called smart computing centers-a term formulated to describe data centers that focus on artificial intelligence.

In 2023 and 2024, more than 500 new projects for the data center were announced everywhere from Mongolia Interior to Guangdong, according to KZ Consulting, a market research company. According to the Communications Industry Data Center Committee, a state industrial association, 150 newly created data centers have been completed and operated by the end of 2024. State -owned companies, companies that are circulating publicly, and the funds that the state followed lined up in the hope that they will be in the foreground AI. Local governments strongly promoted it in the hope that it will stimulate the economy and establish its region as a major center for Amnesty International.