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Beijing's "Eastern Data, Western Computing" strategy is reshaping where the world's second-largest economy builds its AI infrastructure, with over half of new projects heading to the north and northwest.
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While data center developers in Europe and the US wrestle with NIMBYism, grid bottlenecks, and eye-watering land costs near major metros, China has taken a different approach: build where almost nobody lives.
Over 50% of China’s forthcoming data center projects are now located in the country’s northern and northwestern regions, according to BloombergNEF data as of September 2026. The shift is the product of a deliberate government initiative called “Eastern Data, Western Computing,” launched in the 2021-2022 period, which funnels new computing capacity toward areas with cheap power, cooler climates, and vast tracts of open land.
