China accelerates the construction of artificial intelligence power infrastructure... threatening US data centers.

Analysis indicates that as China significantly increases the capacity of its power equipment to expand data centers, which are the core infrastructure of the artificial intelligence industry, this strategy may provide it with an advantage in competition with the United States.

Goldman Sachs, the American investment bank, predicted in a report released on November 13 that China is expected to secure approximately 400 gigawatts of backup power by 2030, which is equivalent to three times the projected power demand of global data centers. This abundant power will become an important foundation for the development of a large-scale AI industry that requires high-performance computing resources. In fact, China accounts for about 25% of the current global data center capacity, ranking second after the United States (44%).

China, especially after experiencing power shortages from 2021 to 2022, has continued to expand investments covering diversified power sources such as renewable energy, coal, and nuclear energy. This move can be interpreted as a strategic preparation to ensure energy security and to aim for high-end industrial development. This investment trend is expected to play a decisive role in the growth of power-intensive industries such as AI and cloud services in the future.

On the other hand, there are concerns that the power infrastructure built by the United States to cope with the rapid expansion of data centers is nearing a bottleneck. According to data from Goldman Sachs, current data centers in the U.S. consume about 6% of the nation's electricity demand, and the reserve power of 8 out of 13 regional grid operators has fallen below critical levels. This indicates that the pace of power generation capacity expansion has not kept up with demand growth, and some regions may also face additional burdens such as soaring electricity costs.

In summary, the adequacy of preparatory power and sustainable power supply capabilities may become a factor driving the shift of the global data center market focus from the United States to China. Particularly in the context of the surge in demand for artificial intelligence-related computing processing, the stability and assurance of power infrastructure increasingly become key determinants of the future competitiveness of the technology industry. This trend is also expected to affect the investment and regulatory reform directions of power generation facilities within the United States.