Chinese provinces offer steep power discounts to AI companies using China-made chips — country continues its aggressive push towards AI independence and homegrown silicon

Chinese provinces like Gansu, Guizhou, and Inner Mongolia are offering significant power discounts to AI datacenters that use domestically-made chips instead of Nvidia or AMD chips. These discounts, along with cash incentives, aim to reduce the cost of industrial power for these data centers. The move follows China's ban on Nvidia AI chips, leading to increased power usage due to the efficiency gap between Chinese chips and Nvidia's H20. China is striving for AI independence by promoting national chip production, with companies like Huawei leading the way with chips like the Ascend 910C. Despite the current gap in chip technology, China is rapidly advancing in the semiconductor industry.