--- title: "Four AI data centres broke ground on one grassland cluster — US$2.14B of planned spend" date: 2026-11-09 category: Capital & Markets site: NeuroAI canonical: https://neuroai.site/a/na-capital-horinger-four-aidc language: en --- # Four AI data centres broke ground on one grassland cluster — US$2.14B of planned spend > Four data-centre projects started in Inner Mongolia's Horinger cluster, a combined US$2.14B of planned investment across four separate sites. Drive north out of Hohhot and the land flattens into grassland, wind farms and long low buildings with no windows. The air is dry and cold for much of the year, which is exactly why the servers are here. In late October four data-centre projects began construction in the Horinger New Area (和林格尔新区) of Inner Mongolia, one of the ten national clusters created under China's east-data-west-computing programme (东数西算). Together they represent about RMB 15.2 billion (≈ US$2.14B / HK$16.7B) of planned investment, spread across 706 mu of land and more than 630,000 square metres of planned floor space. ## Key takeaways - Four intelligent-computing centre (智算中心) projects started construction in Horinger: GDS's north campus, China Gold Data's zero-carbon base, Sinnet's centre and Yungang Intelligent's park. - The **combined planned investment is about RMB 15.2 billion (≈ US$2.14B / HK$16.7B)** — a sum across four separate projects, not a single appropriation. - Individual plans: GDS about **RMB 5.1 billion (≈ US$718M / HK$5.6B)** with 37,000P of planned compute; China Gold Data about **RMB 4.9 billion (≈ US$690M / HK$5.4B)**, excluding servers; Sinnet about **RMB 1.235 billion (≈ US$174M / HK$1.36B)**. - Yungang Intelligent's park is planned at about **RMB 4.0 billion (≈ US$563M / HK$4.4B)** in total; the phase now under construction is **RMB 1.89 billion (≈ US$266M / HK$2.1B)** for 5,400P and 88 MW of IT capacity. The combined total counts the full park, not just this phase. - Hohhot says the city now hosts 64 compute-centre projects with 165,000P of total compute, more than 97% of it intelligent compute. ## Why this patch of grassland Horinger sells three things that AI data centres want and coastal cities cannot supply cheaply: electricity, cold air and distance from dense population. Local figures put delivered power at roughly RMB 0.36 per kWh (≈ US$0.05 / HK$0.40), among the lowest industrial rates in the country, with 310 GW of installed generation in the region and 170 GW of it renewable. New compute centres in the cluster are required to keep power usage effectiveness below 1.15 and to run on more than 85% green electricity. The climate does the rest. An annual average of 6.7°C and more than 200 low-temperature days a year allow mechanical cooling to be switched off for long stretches — the kind of saving that compounds over a fifteen-year asset life. ## The four projects, one by one **GDS north campus (万国数据和林格尔一体化绿色先进示范智算产业园北区).** The largest single plan: about RMB 5.1 billion (≈ US$718M / HK$5.6B), three data-hall buildings plus a utility building, 176.66 mu, and a stated compute target of 37,000P. GDS is positioning it for large-model training, inference and cloud workloads. **China Gold Data zero-carbon base (中金和林格尔零碳算力基地).** About RMB 4.9 billion (≈ US$690M / HK$5.4B), excluding servers, on 223 mu: four halls, eight auxiliary power buildings and its own 220 kV substation. Piling work is under way. **Sinnet centre (光环新网和林格尔智算中心).** About RMB 1.235 billion (≈ US$174M / HK$1.36B) on 107.25 mu, with two data halls, a generator building, an operations block and a reserved 110 kV substation for a second phase. Already under construction. **Yungang Intelligent park (云港智能和林格尔智算产业园).** Planned at about RMB 4.0 billion (≈ US$563M / HK$4.4B) and 200 MW of IT capacity across five halls; the phase that just started is RMB 1.89 billion (≈ US$266M / HK$2.1B), 5,400P and 88 MW, built around liquid cooling. That last distinction matters for anyone reading the headline number. The RMB 15.2 billion (≈ US$2.14B / HK$16.7B) is the sum of four planned totals, one of which is a multi-phase park; the money actually committed to construction today is smaller. ## What a "P" is worth The cluster's compute figures are quoted in P — petaflops — and 165,000P is the kind of number that invites a headline. It should be read as nameplate capacity under a specific precision, not as throughput on any particular model. Two centres can both claim "5,400P" and deliver very different useful capacity depending on interconnect, memory bandwidth, cooling headroom and — above all — what fraction of the hall is actually fitted with accelerators rather than empty racks waiting for them. Hohhot's own framing has shifted accordingly. A city government article published in early November asked what the next phase of the compute business is for, and answered with use cases rather than construction: grass-quality inspection for forage trading, face recognition for 715,600 cattle, AI scheduling at a dairy plant. The pitch is that a region which spent years building capacity now has to show utilisation. ## The risk in the model These are private investments in long-lived assets, and the returns depend on assumptions that are not disclosed: what tenants will pay per P, how quickly halls fill, and whether electricity and land subsidies persist for the life of the asset. There is also a timing mismatch. The four projects target completion from 2027 onward, by which point accelerator supply, model architectures and even the definition of an efficient data centre may have moved. A shell built for 2026 densities can be retrofitted; a power contract and a substation cannot be moved. ## Honest limitations The project figures come from the Hohhot municipal government's own article and from reports by People's Daily's Inner Mongolia channel and Inner Mongolia Daily (内蒙古日报), which appear to draw on a common local briefing; I did not see individual company filings, EIA documents or construction contracts, and GDS, China Gold Data, Sinnet and Yungang did not publish separate announcements that I could retrieve. The RMB 15.2 billion (≈ US$2.14B / HK$16.7B) is a sum of four separately stated plans, one of which covers a full park rather than the phase now being built, so it overstates current committed spend. The 37,000P, 5,400P and 165,000P figures are planned or nameplate capacity, not measured output, and no precision or utilisation basis is given. The RMB 0.36 per kWh rate (≈ US$0.05 / HK$0.40) is a local government description of delivered industrial power, not a tariff schedule. Completion dates are targets. ## What readers can do now - Compare data-centre announcements on MW of IT load and energised capacity, not on petaflops, which are quoted at inconsistent precisions. - When a regional total is cited, check whether it sums planned projects or operating ones; the gap is usually years. - If you are a tenant, ask for the power contract term and the cooling design density in writing — those two numbers decide whether a cheap hall stays cheap. --- Published by NeuroAI (https://neuroai.site/) — https://neuroai.site/a/na-capital-horinger-four-aidc Free to quote with attribution and a link to the original.