OMM Redaksiyası
A new generation of data centres is transforming the rural landscape of Inner Mongolia, where potato farms and grasslands are being joined by vast facilities designed to power China’s artificial intelligence ambitions.
According to the BBC, the city of Ulanqab has become a major construction site for data centres operated by technology companies including “Huawei”, “ByteDance” and “DeepSeek”. The region, once known mainly as China’s potato capital, is now emerging as a digital hub.
Why China is building data centres in rural regions
China is developing data centres in Ulanqab, Ningxia, Gansu and Guizhou, where land is cheaper, temperatures are lower and renewable energy capacity from wind and solar power is expanding. Cooler conditions can also reduce the amount of water required to operate the facilities.
The computing capacity provided by the centres is considered crucial to China’s competition with the United States. Beijing aims to embed artificial intelligence in 90% of industries and society by 2030, while the Chinese Communist Party regards the technology as important to both economic and national security.
Workers at one Ulanqab construction site described the project as moving at “China speed”. Engineers said the facility was being built in phases, with further expansions expected in the future.
US-China competition over artificial intelligence
China’s growing AI capabilities have intensified competition with Washington. US President Donald Trump has said that “whoever wins AI, wins”, while Dario Amodei, chief executive of “Anthropic”, has supported restrictions on the sale of advanced chips and equipment to China.
China’s state-run “Global Times” has rejected US concerns, describing them as part of a “Cold War playbook” aimed at containing China’s rise. President Xi Jinping has encouraged Chinese companies to develop more affordable open-source AI models that can be modified by users, companies and governments.
Chinese firms have argued that sharing technology has helped them innovate more rapidly and cope with restricted access to advanced chips. Beijing is also seeking a greater role in establishing international rules for artificial intelligence, with Xi repeatedly calling for stronger regulation and a global framework.
Concerns for local communities
The expansion has also raised environmental and social concerns. China wants most of its data centres to run on green energy by 2030, but parts of the national grid still depend on coal. Water supplies are another concern in the dry areas of Inner Mongolia.
Some villages have been relocated, although the number of affected residents and the compensation they received are difficult to establish. Local people have also questioned how many jobs the centres have created and whether the projects could threaten their farming livelihoods.
Some residents remain optimistic. One local man, identified by his surname Zhang, said his children had found jobs at the new data centres and that China was now at the forefront of the world.
Artificial intelligence is also being promoted as a response to China’s ageing workforce. The country produces about five million science and technology graduates each year, compared with roughly half a million in the United States, and more young engineers are choosing to remain in China.
However, researchers say China’s innovation environment still has limits. Professor Liu Jun of Tsinghua University said students were encouraged to ask more questions and challenge existing ideas, but that cultural and systemic factors made such changes difficult.
For many rural residents, the AI boom remains distant from daily life. Some farmers say they rarely use the internet and have seen little change from the arrival of the data centres. That gap between Beijing’s technology goals and ordinary people’s priorities could become a challenge as China accelerates its AI-driven transformation.
