China sovereign AI programme
China’s national compute plans combine regional data-centre development with investment in domestic chips and AI companies.
National AI Programs, from 2022, target year 2025; the record also covers Big Fund III and Eastern Data Western Computing
Systems
Two hardware records. Each is run by multiple state and private operators.
| Reported operational, without a count | Ascend 910C |
|---|---|
| Reported operational, without a count | Ascend 910B |
Funding
| Big Fund III: RMB 344 billion registered capitalGovernment |
|---|
| National AI Industry Fund: RMB 60 billion; founded by Big Fund III and GuozhitouGovernment |
Big Fund III helped establish the RMB60B AI fund. Xuhui’s January 2025 announcement gives no contribution split, so the two fund sizes are shown separately without an additive total.
Big Fund III’s RMB344B is registered capital. The six state-owned banks’ May 2024 announcements included contributions to be made over ten years; registration does not establish that the money has been paid in or invested.
The programme
Big Fund III has RMB344B in registered capital and helped establish the RMB60B National AI Industry Investment Fund. Its contribution to the latter is not separately disclosed, so the two fund sizes have no additive total here.
Money on record
The government’s documents state no budget for the programme.
Chips and rules
- Accelerators
- Huawei’s accelerators are in both of its systems.Chip makers’ product pages
- US export rules
- China is in Country Group D:5, where exporting advanced AI chips needs a licence from the US Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, 29 Oct 2026
- Scrutica’s rating
- Scrutica rates the programme’s dependence on US technology high, on a scale of none, low, medium and high. Scrutica gives no rating of its dependence on NVIDIA hardware.A qualitative assessment of the programme’s chips, partners and supplier relationships, as none, low, medium or high
Partners
11 partners by procurement stage and 7 more named in the programme’s sources. 5 are on the Entity List.
- Commissioned, 10
- Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun), Tencent Cloud, Apple Inc., Huawei Cloud, China Mobile, China Telecom, SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation), Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC), ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), Hua Hong Semiconductor
- Announced, 1
- Piotech Jianke (科益晟, via Guotou Jixin)
Related pages
Sources
8 sources
- China Daily report hosted by gov.cn on Big Fund III’s RMB344B registered capital and planned bank contributions.: https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202405/29/content_WS66569746c6d0868f4e8e7987.html
- Xuhui government announcement identifying Big Fund III and Guozhitou as founders of the RMB60B AI fund.: https://www.shanghai.gov.cn/nw15343/20250123/76167eae0a624d569fc71fe6627e5334.html?siteId=1
- Strider and SCSP analysis of China’s AI infrastructure development.: https://content.striderintel.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Strider-SCSP-China-AI-Infrastructure-Surge-Report.pdf
- RAND analysis of China’s AI industrial policy.: https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PEA4012-1.html
- Bloomberg reporting on a draft nationwide AI data-centre plan in June 2026.: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-09/china-prepares-295-billion-plan-to-fund-nationwide-ai-buildout
- Background on the Big Fund’s phases and registered capital.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Integrated_Circuit_Industry_Investment_Fund
- Goldman Sachs projection of AI data-centre capital expenditure by Chinese providers.: https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/chinas-ai-providers-expected-to-invest-70-billion-dollars-in-data-centers-amid-overseas-expansion
- MIT Technology Review investigation into unused AI data-centre capacity, March 2025.: https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/26/1113802/china-ai-data-centers-unused/
Data
How the figures were made
Announcement recorded. No commitment or disbursement recorded. The stage is assigned from reported hardware status, disbursements and commitments.
Other caveats on this record, 4
- The cited material gives no fund-level disbursement amount. Provincial and municipal programmes also finance AI, so the two funds do not describe all public support.
- MIT Technology Review reported unused AI data-centre capacity in March 2025. Its investigation does not establish a national utilisation rate.
- The cited material does not provide an installed count for the Ascend 910B or 910C.
- Bloomberg reported a draft RMB2T nationwide AI data-centre plan in June 2026. This record carries no enacted primary document or approved budget for that proposal; it is excluded from the funding figures.
Corrections to this page, 1
Identifiers
- Scrutica ID
- sovereign-cn
- Country code
- CN
- Name in the record
- China: National AI Programs / Big Fund III / Eastern Data Western Computing