China goes rural with data centers in quest to power AI

China has built dozens of data centers in the rural southwestern province of Guizhou, including Huawei's largest, as part of a government strategy to power AI development by relocating digital infrastructure away from the eastern seaboard.

GUIAN NEW AREA, CHINA – In China’s hilly Guizhou province, a cluster of European-style buildings complete with a clock tower and a multi-arched bridge emits a low, permanent hum — a clue to its unexpected identity as tech giant Huawei’s largest data center. The town-like complex is unique in design, but not in its placement. Dozens of data centers have been constructed in the southwestern province in recent years. They are part of a government strategy that has seen much of the digital infrastructure for breakneck artificial intelligence development across China’s eastern seaboard established in the country’s less populated, rural west.