The vast amounts of energy needed by hungry AI accelerators are the next big concern for companies and governments looking to get ahead of the technology. And it seems that China is betting on this to encourage its companies to use GPUs made in the country.
A Financial Times report points out that provinces such as Gansu, Guzhou and Inner Mongolia would be offering impressive 50% discounts on industrial energy bills to AI data centers in the region that use domestic accelerators. The cut in charges is accompanied by direct financial incentives for companies to establish themselves there.
Also according to information on the website, these regions already offer energy that is 30% cheaper than the coastal area of China. Added to the incentive discount, a kWh can cost as little as 0.4 yuan for benefiting companies.
It appears that China’s internal areas are better prepared to handle the large amount of energy that industrial AI processing requires. This is even though the use of only Chinese GPUs represents an increase in energy consumption compared to NVIDIA models.
Foreign chips are more efficient, but that doesn’t worry China
After all the controversy surrounding the ban and eventual return of exports of NVIDIA’s H20 accelerators to China, the country itself decided to bar the purchase of these GPUs. There are reports that the decision has already had an impact of 30% to 50% on an increase in the energy consumption of AI companies.
This is because NVIDIA hardware is more energy efficient than currently available Chinese accelerators. And it is worth mentioning that the H20 were based on Grace Hopper, while the new Blackwell are even more efficient, but these have already been officially banned directly in the USA as well.
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However, China appears to compensate for the limitations of its hardware components with a large quantity of products and enough energy to maintain them. And it may be that these limitations will not lag behind its international competitors much longer either.
Via: Tom’s Hardware
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Source: https://www.adrenaline.com.br/ia/china-estaria-oferecendo-energia-mais-barata-para-empresas-de-ia-que-usam-gpus-domesticas/
