CITIC Securities says during the 15th Five-Year Plan period China’s compute
network could become core infrastructure supporting new productive forces and
expanded effective investment. Policy initiatives — including
East‑data‑West‑compute, a national integrated compute network, hyperscale
intelligent compute clusters and compute‑power/power coordination — together
with AI demand are driving a shift from fragmented builds to hub‑based layouts,
scale expansion and nationwide dispatch. CITIC estimates incremental intelligent
compute of about 30 million P and all‑in capex near CNY10 trillion over the
period, and argues that domestic compute will exhibit both industrial‑product and
public‑utility characteristics, potentially becoming a major lever for
industrial upgrading and capital formation.
