Alibaba Cloud Targets More Than 20 GW of Global Data Center Capacity by 2032
DataNews Editorial Team
Alibaba has announced a target to expand Alibaba Cloud’s global data center footprint beyond 20 GW by 2032, alongside further investment in AI infrastructure. The company also unveiled the Zhenwu V900 AI chip in Hangzhou.
- Alibaba Cloud has set a long-term target of more than 20 GW of global data center scale by 2032.
- The stated figure is a future target, not confirmed operational or under-construction capacity.
- Alibaba paired the infrastructure announcement with the launch of its Pingtouge-developed Zhenwu V900 AI chip.
- Alibaba’s more than CNY380 billion AI investment commitment is not broken down by data center, chip, model or other spending categories.
Alibaba Group CEO Wu Yongming said the company intends to scale Alibaba Cloud’s global data center footprint to more than 20 GW by 2032. Alibaba positioned the objective as a response to expected exponential growth in demand for AI.
The company also said it would continue expanding investment in AI infrastructure. Separately, Alibaba unveiled the Zhenwu V900 AI chip in Hangzhou. The chip was developed by Pingtouge, Alibaba’s chip unit.
Alibaba said the V900 delivers three times the performance of the preceding M890 product and can be deployed in clusters of up to 500,000 chips. The simultaneous data center target and in-house chip development suggest Alibaba is seeking to align cloud infrastructure expansion with a more vertically integrated AI compute platform. This is an inference from the announced initiatives rather than confirmation of a defined deployment plan.
Alibaba had previously committed to invest more than CNY380 billion over three years in AI capabilities. That commitment covers AI capabilities broadly; the available information does not allocate the spending between data centers, chips, models or other activities. The source also reports that Alibaba raised about US$10.2 billion through an additional share offering in Hong Kong in August.
For data center and power-infrastructure markets, a more-than-20-GW global objective could create substantial future demand for facilities, grid interconnections, power supply and AI compute infrastructure if executed. Alibaba has not disclosed its current installed base, the geographic distribution of the planned footprint, development phases, data-center-specific CAPEX, or electricity sourcing.
If delivered, the target would represent a major long-term source of demand for data center capacity, power infrastructure, and AI-oriented compute and network equipment. It is a 2032 target, however, not a statement of capacity already operational or under construction.
- TechNews 科技新報 / ChineseSource →
This article was prepared by the DataNews editorial team based on the sources listed above.