While many Americans resist, China embraces AI data center boom

Detailed summary

Far from the opposition American tech giants face, it's smooth sailing for the Chinese AI firms racing to catch up, and hoping to overtake them.

Ulanqab, China — Off a major highway on the outskirts of Ulanqab, in the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia, Hereford cows roam through corn fields scouring the ground for any dried up remains of the recent harvest.

Hovering over the landscape are shiny new transmission towers linked by power cables that stretch along the plateau for as far as the eye can see. On the ridgeline, covered in snow, wind turbines spin, taking full advantage of the ever-blowing wind.

The energy pulsing from the remote Chinese region — a combination of renewables and fossil fuels — will soon power multi-story data centers being constructed on farmland as part of a sprawling AI data center construction boom.

The construction site is the size of a small American city. It is the biggest, and fastest growing infrastructure project anywhere in China right now.

This corner of Inner Mongolia was famous for generations for growing potatoes. Now, it's fast becoming an AI hub, and Chinese officials hope the expansive, rugged landscape will help power the country's ambition to surpass the U.S. as the global leader in artificial intelligence.

Baletu, a 72-year-old farmer, who has lived here for more than 40 years growing potatoes and corn, said the changes across his local landscape are positive.

"It doesn't affect my farmland, not at all," he told CBS News. "It's good for the area."

A short drive away, CBS News was able to see what all that wind power will soon be feeding. Trucks, cranes and thousands of workers are taking part in the construction project to create one of the biggest data centers anywhere in the world.

We drove miles down new roads with multistory data centers going up on either side. Even from the road it was easy to spot the countless racks that will hold servers, semi-conductor chips and cooling and exhaust fans.

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