Meanwhile, China is investing billions is renewable energy for data centers.

Wonder which will be more cost competitive in the "AI race"?

leonidasrup a day ago | parent | next [-]

China is investing billions in both renewable energy and non-renewable energy for data centers.

"As they are located mostly in the east of the country, the data centre electricity supply in China today is dominated by coal with a near 70% share, followed by renewables with nearly 20%, nuclear close to 10% and natural gas accounting for the remainder. Between 2024 and 2030 coal remains the largest source of additional electricity for data centres, with annual generation increasing by nearly 90 TWh. Renewables, mostly solar PV and wind, add nearly 90 TWh over the same period, supported by an increase in the share of renewables in the grid electricity mix, provincial co-location mandates and policies to prioritise the construction of data centres in renewables-rich western China. After 2030 the introduction of SMRs significantly boosts the nuclear share of the data centre electricity mix. Between 2030 and 2035 the rise in renewables and nuclear pushes coal into decline. By 2035 both sources together make up nearly 60% of the data centre electricity supply in China."

Energy and AI World Energy Outlook Special Report International Energy Agency (IEA)

https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-and-ai/energy-supply-for-...

https://www.iea.org/files/de9dea13-b07d-42c5-a398-d1b3ae17d8...

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thenthenthen a day ago | parent | next [-]

True. But most are in the east? The most expensive land? Near the coast? I have a hard time believing that. I think most are in the west, where energy land water is cheap and the climate cool. I have seen the datacenters in Guizhou with my own eyes and its insane. Now they are expanding to Inner-Mongolia and also in (sub tropical!) Guangdong specifically for AI datacenters.

	▲	yorwba 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		There are plenty of places in the east where land and water are cheap enough that people use it for rice farming. (I have seen rice fields in Shanghai with my own eyes. There's lots of room.) Meanwhile, basic infrastructure in the west is lacking, including the electrical grid. That's also why energy is cheap there: it's difficult to get it to places where people would be willing to pay more. Guangdong is on the eastern coast. Inner Mongolia isn't, but the main data center hub of Ulanqab was no doubt chosen for being relatively close to Beijing. Guizhou is the one example that's actually somewhat remote, but it's a small share of the total so far. Farther west, Yunnan, Sichuan, Tibet, Qinghai and Xinjiang don't really feature at all in the datacenter business. Ultimately, the benefits of proximity seem to be more important.

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origini a day ago | parent | prev [-]

And?

They still invest massivly into solar and renewable.

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Rzor a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think the race for Anthropic is more about getting the bag and exiting ASAP.

	▲	jqpabc123 a day ago \| parent [-]
		I think the same applies to all of the smaller "frontier" AI vendors. Their entire focus is short term rewards. I don't think any of them will survive for very long on their own. The bigger players will gobble them up for cheap once the bubble pops.

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txdv a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Scaling renewables is slow, they need data centers now. One of the big problems in the US right now is getting enough electricity into your DC. Nobody wants to spare capacity, since it has already upset the electricity prices in the last 6 years and inflation is a hot topic.

	▲	jqpabc123 21 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Scaling renewables is slow Not in China. They have as much renewable energy capacity in place as the rest of the world combined.