Alibaba unveils data center powered by 10,000 in-house chips

Alibaba and China Telecom are rolling out a data center in southern China, utilising the e-commerce giant's proprietary chips, as the nation intensifies its focus on native AI infrastructure.

The center, revealed on Tuesday, will incorporate 10,000 of Alibaba's Zhenwu chips crafted for AI training and inference, equipped to handle AI models with hundreds of billions of parameters.

These rank among the most extensive models available and highlight how China's leading tech firms are progressing with in-house AI semiconductor advancements as Beijing enhances its quest for technological independence.

In recent years, the US has aimed to limit China's access to crucial semiconductor technology, including AI chips from Nvidia, which has sped up China's initiatives to create domestic substitutes.

Alibaba, a major player in Chinese tech, has been developing its own chips through its T-head division.

Based in Hangzhou, the company is also a significant entity in China's cloud computing sector.

It designs the chips, builds the data centers, and formulates its own AI models, which are then marketed via its cloud computing division.

Recently, cloud computing has ranked as one of its most rapidly growing segments.

There is a growing emphasis on establishing large-scale data centers in China utilising local technology.

A month ago, a computing cluster powered by Huawei's cutting-edge Ascend 910C AI chips became operational.

While American tech giants are anticipated to invest about $700 billion this year to boost their AI expansion, Chinese companies are adopting a varied strategy.

They are investing less and have focused their AI efforts on sectors they predict will heighten revenue growth and yield returns on their investments.

China Telecom and Alibaba announced that the data center, situated in Shaoguan, within Guangdong province, is projected to increase to a capacity of 100,000 chips.

They also noted that the computing cluster could be applicable across sectors ranging from healthcare to advanced materials.