SW China's Guizhou harnesses strong computing power to empower industries

A human blink lasts 100 milliseconds; a full optical network transmission over 2,808 kilometers takes just 14 milliseconds.

"A single blink is equivalent to the time it takes to complete more than seven one-way data transmissions from Guiyang to Ningbo," explains Zhang Minglong, a senior manager at China Mobile, describing the ultra-low latency and efficient transmission of the "world's first 400G computing power channel."

This is the power that exists in southwest China's Guizhou Province, the country's first national big data comprehensive pilot zone and one of the leaders in the race for computing power.

By the end of July 2024, Guizhou's total computing power had reached 40.55 EFLOPS, placing it among the top in the country. EFLOPS is a measurement unit used to determine a computer's speed. A 1 EFLOPS computing system can complete 1 quintillion floating-point operations per second.

This growth in computing power is supported by a solid infrastructure.

Guizhou has 47 key data centers either under construction or operational, including 25 super-large and large data centers.

Photo shows the data center of China Mobile, one of the country's leading telecommunications operators, in the Gui'an New Area, southwest China's Guizhou Province. (People's Daily Online/Chen Jiequan)

One of the earliest data centers in the Gui'an New Area is the data center of China Mobile, one of the country's leading telecommunications operators.

Within its 190,000 square meters of data center buildings, nearly 30,000 standard racks and over 40,000 servers are operating at high speed.

What has Guizhou done that is attracting these data centers and companies?

With natural advantages such as climate, energy, and environment, along with a decade-long big data strategy, the national integrated computing power network hub and consistently leading digital economy growth, Guizhou's "innate + acquired" strengths are converted into an internal driving force for continuously strengthening its computing power foundation.

Photo shows the data center of China Mobile, one of the country's leading telecommunications operators, in the Gui'an New Area, southwest China's Guizhou Province. (Photo courtesy of China Mobile Group Guizhou Co. Ltd.)

Guizhou aims to establish China's largest computing power cluster by 2025. This involves deploying more than 600,000 smart chips, achieving a computing capacity exceeding 180 EFLOPS, and storing over 25EB of data.

Guizhou is also working to bridge the gap between computing resources and application scenarios.

Guizhou's first 5G fully connected factory, operated by Guizhou Tyre Co., Ltd., has improved its production efficiency by utilizing intelligent robots, sensors, and industrial cameras for wireless industrial interconnection and production scheduling. This has resulted in a 400 percent increase in efficiency.

Photo shows the Big Data Sci-tech Innovation City in the Gui'an New Area, southwest China's Guizhou Province. (Photo courtesy of the organization and personnel department of the Gui'an New Area)

Guizhou taps into its vast data and computing capabilities to empower a range of industries, including weather forcast, e-commerce, tourism, and digital countryside construction.

Photo shows the Guizhou dispatching platform of a national integrated computing power network in southwest China's Guizhou Province. (Photo courtesy of the organization and personnel department of the Gui'an New Area)

Starting from scratch, Guizhou has become the largest center for film and television production rendering computing power services in southern China, catering to the computing needs of over 3,600 projects in the entertainment industry.

In early August 2024, Guiyang granted its inaugural license for manned autonomous driving tests to Robobus, a minibus independently developed by PIX Moving.

Cao Yuteng, chief operating officer of PIX Moving, emphasized that the bus's operation not only demonstrates its ability to run autonomously but also showcases the company's impressive computing power.

Moving forward, PIX Moving aims to further improve and validate the autonomous learning capabilities of Robobus in terms of functionality, performance, and safety, with computing power serving as the foundation for these advancements.

Photo shows Robobus, an autonomous driving bus developed by PIX Moving, a company in southwest China's Guizhou Province. (Photo courtesy of PIX Moving)

In February 2024, Guizhou launched a computing power coupon distribution activity to support and incentivize companies, universities, research institutions, and others to purchase computing power services. As of July 30, a total of 128 computing power coupons worth 2.04 billion yuan (about $288 million) had been issued.

In 2023, Guizhou's software and information technology service industry generated 85.62 billion yuan in revenue, with a growth rate of 20.7 percent. The digital economy accounted for 42 percent of Guizhou's GDP.