Key Highlights
- Alibaba partnered with China Telecom to unveil a massive 10,000-chip artificial intelligence computing facility in Shaoguan, located in Guangdong province, utilizing Alibaba’s proprietary Zhenwu semiconductor technology.
- This facility represents the first large-scale deployment of Zhenwu-powered infrastructure in China’s Greater Bay Area, capable of training artificial intelligence models featuring hundreds of billions of parameters.
- Performance metrics indicate the facility delivers 30% improved training and inference efficiency, while single-card throughput reaches nearly 10 times that of earlier generations.
- Expansion plans call for scaling the facility to 100,000 chips, with computing resources made accessible to smaller enterprises through China Telecom’s service platform.
- This deployment comes shortly after a comparable 10,000-chip Huawei Ascend 910C facility became operational in Shenzhen during the previous month.
Alibaba (BABA) has officially partnered with China Telecom to bring online a substantial 10,000-chip artificial intelligence computing facility in Shaoguan, situated in Guangdong province. The entire facility operates on Alibaba’s proprietary Zhenwu AI semiconductor chips, which were designed by the company’s T-Head chip engineering division.
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, BABA
This unveiling represents a significant milestone as it marks the inaugural large-scale deployment of Zhenwu semiconductor technology throughout the Greater Bay Area. Alibaba Cloud characterized this development as a meaningful transition in China’s artificial intelligence computing landscape, shifting “from high-end performance breakthroughs to large-scale industrial implementation.”
ALIBABA LAUNCHES DATA CENTER WITH 10,000 OF ITS OWN CHIPS AS CHINA RAMPS UP AI PUSH
— First Squawk (@FirstSquawk) April 8, 2026
The facility incorporates a cutting-edge high-performance networking infrastructure that enables all 10,000 semiconductor chips to function collectively as a unified supercomputing system. According to Alibaba, this architecture achieves 30% enhanced training and inference efficiency, while single-card throughput experiences a nearly tenfold increase compared to previous-generation systems.
The infrastructure possesses the capability to train artificial intelligence models containing hundreds of billions of parameters — positioning it alongside some of the most advanced AI models currently under development worldwide.
Latency performance measures at 4 microseconds, which Alibaba credits to the sophisticated network architecture connecting the semiconductor chips. This specification proves critical for enterprise artificial intelligence applications where rapid response times are essential.
China’s Strategic Investment in Homegrown AI Computing
This facility launch aligns with a comprehensive national initiative. Beijing incorporated intelligent computing infrastructure into its 15th five-year strategic plan during the previous month, while an August State Council artificial intelligence action directive emphasized the need for optimized computing resource deployment throughout China.
By the conclusion of June last year, China’s aggregate computing capacity reached 962,000 petaflops — representing 21% of global capacity and marking a 73% year-over-year increase, based on data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.
The Shaoguan facility has already found applications in healthcare and advanced manufacturing sectors. Small and medium-sized enterprises can obtain computing access via China Telecom’s platform, utilizing flexible payment models based on card usage or hourly rates.
Alibaba has also disclosed intentions to expand the facility from 10,000 to 100,000 chips. This expansion strategy targets cost reduction and enhanced overall resource utilization.
Industry Context: Huawei and China’s Semiconductor Competition
This deployment follows a comparable achievement from the previous month, when China’s inaugural 10,000-card intelligent computing facility — constructed using Huawei’s Ascend 910C semiconductor chips — commenced operations in Shenzhen.
That Shenzhen facility provides 11,000 petaflops of computing capacity and has been integrated with a separate 3,000-petaflop facility activated during 2024. Shanghai is simultaneously developing a 10,000-card facility through an INESA state-owned subsidiary, designed for compatibility with various domestic semiconductor architectures.
Although Chinese semiconductor chips currently lag behind Nvidia in individual performance metrics, Beijing’s approach emphasizes large-scale cluster infrastructure and optimized networking to narrow this performance gap.
Export restrictions imposed by the United States on Nvidia semiconductor products have catalyzed China’s domestic chip development efforts. Alibaba’s T-Head division has played a pivotal role in this strategic initiative, operating alongside Huawei.
BABA experienced a 7.79% increase on the announcement day, with after-hours trading adding an additional 0.82% gain on its Hong Kong-listed shares (728-HK).
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