China Turns Farmland into $37B AI Data Hub Amid Chip Cuts

• China converts farmland into a massive $37B AI hub.
• Subsidies, Huawei tech, and national networking offset chip limits.

On September 21, 2025, Cryptopolitan reported that China is turning 760 acres of farmland in Wuhu into a $37 billion hub for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. Leveraging national-scale subsidies, innovative Huawei networking technologies, and optimized data infrastructure, the project aims to bolster China's technological capabilities in response to U.S. restrictions on advanced chip exports.

Dubbed by an executive as the "Stargate of China," the initiative seeks to centralize AI development and computational resources. Located on a Yangtze River island, the site is replacing rice paddies with cutting-edge server farms. This transformation forms a central part of Beijing's strategy to enhance AI capabilities while mitigating the limitations posed by restricted access to high-end processors.

China’s approach integrates efforts between newly built urban data centers and older rural facilities. In cities like Shanghai, Nanjing, and Suzhou, new data centers are assigned real-time AI “inference” functions, critical for immediate application execution. Meanwhile, older facilities in remote areas will train AI models, including large language models that require substantial computational resources.

The project exclusively utilizes Huawei and China Telecom equipment to develop a unified national AI data network. Huawei's UB-Mesh networking solution is being deployed to distribute computational workloads efficiently across server clusters, optimizing AI model training processes and maximizing the use of existing infrastructure.

Local governments are supporting the initiative by subsidizing AI chip purchases, covering up to 30% of acquisition costs. These subsidies are essential for developing Wuhu’s data center ecosystem. So far, 15 companies have established operations in the city, contributing to the infrastructure required for national AI operations.

This investment serves as a direct countermeasure to U.S. export restrictions, which inhibit China from acquiring high-performance processors from firms like Nvidia. By prioritizing infrastructure innovation and national-scale resource optimization, Beijing is positioning itself to overcome hardware access constraints and advance its AI ambitions.