The First Non-Provincial Capital City in Central China Is Competing to Become the Next "Computing Power Hub"

Recently, the “shrimp farming” trend sparked by OpenClaw has once again drawn public attention to “computing power anxiety.”

Behind computing power is electricity. This year, the government’s work report for the first time listed “computing and electricity coordination” as a new infrastructure project. The national “14th Five-Year Plan” also clearly states the promotion of green electricity and coordinated development of computing power. The National Development and Reform Commission recently revealed plans to advance the construction of the “six networks” including power grid and computing network, as well as key areas such as “AI+” and education and healthcare. The estimated investment this year is expected to exceed 7 trillion yuan.

Many regions have already launched new rounds of development. Recently, Hubei explicitly proposed building three major computing power hubs in Wuhan, Yichang, and “Xiangshou” to create highlands for digital economy development. Among them, Yichang, which hosts the Three Gorges and Gezhouba hydropower projects and has abundant clean energy, has frequently announced plans to become a “computing power capital.”

At this year’s National Two Sessions, Huang Yan, a deputy to the National People’s Congress and president of Three Gorges University, also suggested establishing a central hub node for the national integrated computing network in Hubei, relying on large hydropower stations like the Three Gorges to build green data centers that combine green power supply with low-latency, low-cost external computing power, supporting power and computing coordination and green development.

As a core competitiveness in the digital age, major cities across the country are fiercely competing around computing power. The central region alone includes provincial capitals such as Zhengzhou, Changsha, Hefei, Nanchang, and Taiyuan.

Leading players are competing to enter the market. Where does Yichang’s confidence come from? And how will it break through?

Betting

After upgrading to become the second city in Hubei and the first non-provincial capital city in the central region, Yichang recently proposed to “rapidly advance toward building a provincial support hub and a trillion-yuan city, striving to become a leading city in the central and western non-provincial capitals and a regional center connecting the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River.”

Looking at Hubei, Wuhan, the provincial capital, broke 1 trillion yuan in GDP in 2014, reached a new milestone of 2 trillion yuan in 2023, and is expected to surpass 2.2 trillion yuan in 2025, firmly holding the title of “the first city in central China.” However, behind it, the economic scale of other cities shows a clear gap—Yichang and Xiangyang, ranked second and third, are projected to have GDPs of 646.442 billion yuan and 611.385 billion yuan in 2025, respectively, far behind Wuhan.

After more than a decade, there is increasing hope within Hubei for the emergence of a second trillion-yuan city. Yichang, closest to the trillion-yuan threshold, naturally carries many expectations.

However, for Yichang now, accelerating from a 600 billion yuan economy to a trillion-yuan city presents significant pressure and challenges. As local media put it, “what is needed is not small incremental improvements, but a complete overhaul and leap forward.”

Where will this drive come from? The local focus is on the key sectors of computing power and big data.

Yichang is located at the junction of the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, known as the “Three Gorges Gateway” and the “Throat of Sichuan and Hubei.” It has 99 major rivers, including the Yangtze and Qingjiang, with a water energy resource development potential of 30 million kilowatts, making it one of China’s most abundant and promising regions for hydropower development.

The Gezhouba Dam, the first large hydropower station on the Yangtze, and the Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydropower station in the world, are “super projects” that have earned Yichang the reputation as the “Water Power Capital of the World” and “China’s Power Heart.” Power generated from Yichang’s hydropower stations, transmitted within a radius of 1,000 kilometers, lights up most of China—reaching Guangzhou and Shenzhen in the south, Shanghai and Zhejiang in the east, Beijing and Tianjin in the north, and Chengdu and Chongqing in the west.

In addition to its advantageous green energy resources, a relevant official from Yichang’s Data Bureau also highlighted its excellent network location: Yichang is at the geometric center of the eight major national computing hubs, capable of effectively meeting low-latency computing demands from the Yangtze River Economic Belt and eastern regions to the east, and radiating to alleviate the urgent computing needs within the province and neighboring central provinces to the west.

Previously, Hubei began exploring the “Yichang into Wuhan” model, building computing centers in Yichang with lower electricity prices to serve Wuhan’s digital industry development, reducing operational costs and retaining computing demand.

Starting Line

Looking back at Yichang’s development history, this small city along the gorge has undergone multiple transformations—from a traditional industrial city to a steadily modernizing industrial system, with its economic total rising to become the “first non-provincial capital city in central China.”

Behind this transformation is the courage to “cut out the diseased flesh.” After the launch of the Yangtze River protection campaign in 2016, Yichang took the lead in breaking the “chemical industry encircling the river” along the Yangtze, cutting back on pillar industries. All 134 chemical companies along the river were shut down, restructured, or relocated, and this experience was once promoted across 11 provinces (including municipalities and autonomous regions) along the river.

This also caused Yichang’s GDP growth rate to plunge to a historic low of 2.4% in 2017. After this brief “pain,” Yichang vigorously promoted the transformation and upgrading of the chemical industry, focusing on cultivating emerging industries and demonstrating strong green development momentum.

In terms of key industries, after modern chemical new materials, new energy, high-end equipment, and health industries have each reached a trillion-yuan scale by 2022 and 2024, they have become key “pieces” in Yichang’s industrial landscape.

By 2025, Yichang’s computing power and big data industry output will surpass 100 billion yuan for the first time, becoming its fourth trillion-yuan industry. Qin Zunwen, vice president of the China Regional Economics Society and secretary-general of the Yangtze River Economic Belt High-Quality Development Think Tank Alliance, considers this a good achievement.

Reviewing publicly available information, from setting the goal in 2022 to “obtaining approval as a national hub for the integrated computing network” to beginning “breakthrough development of the digital economy” in 2023, and then to 2024’s goal to “enhance the driving force of the digital economy,” with the industry scale surpassing 70 billion yuan that year—Yichang’s computing and big data industries crossed the 100 billion yuan threshold in just three years.

Data shows that Yichang has already built a computing scale of 3,500 petaflops (P), with ongoing projects exceeding 10,000P, ranking first in Hubei.

Currently, Yichang’s core digital economy enterprises number over 800, with leading companies like Sugon, Qihoo 360, and Alibaba Cloud establishing operations through cooperation.

Taking Yichang’s Qianjiang District as an example, its innovative “Core Pool Divine Network” development strategy (with “core” referring to domestic chip R&D, adaptation, and application; “pool” to computing, data, and capital pools; “divine” to spiritual education and professional experts; “network” to network information equipment manufacturing and communications) precisely outlines the ecological logic of the computing industry, helping it leap from “zero foundation” to “new benchmark.”

After years of effort, the district has established four emerging industrial parks, including Beidou Industrial Park and Jiangnan Innovation Park, with a total computing power exceeding 2,300P, becoming the core engine of Yichang’s computing industry.

Breaking Through

Crossing the trillion-yuan output scale is just the beginning. Yichang’s ambition to become the “computing power capital” is clearly more than that.

In February 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments jointly issued a notice approving the construction of national computing hubs in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Chengdu-Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Gansu, and Ningxia, and planning 10 national data center clusters. This marked the overall layout of the national integrated big data center system and officially launched the “East Data, West Computing” project.

In recent years, as regional computing power development accelerates, discussions about adding more national computing hubs in the central region and filling regional gaps have increased.

A relevant official from Yichang’s Data Bureau previously told media that Yichang is seeking to become the ninth national computing hub: “The existing eight hubs have significant signal attenuation between them, and the central region must have a relay station. Yichang is at the geometric center, with all delays below 15 milliseconds.”

Currently, Yichang has set a new goal for the coming year: to have over 1,000 core digital economy enterprises with revenue exceeding 120 billion yuan. Focusing on its role as a “central computing hub,” it plans to develop the Yichang Smart Computing “WanKa” cluster, aiming for a computing scale surpassing 5,000P; and to accelerate the “Yichang into Wuhan” resource pool construction, and to promote the layout of high-speed computing networks connecting Yichang with Chongqing, Wuhan, Xi’an, and Changsha in a “cross” pattern.

It is noteworthy that among many cities competing to develop the computing industry and aiming to become “computing power capitals” or “computing cities,” some with stronger overall strength and economic power are also involved.

In February this year, the national supercomputing internet core node officially went online in Zhengzhou, connecting over 30 computing centers nationwide, making it the largest single resource pool of computing resources in China.

Local media analyzed that this project will greatly enhance Zhengzhou’s and the central region’s high-performance computing capabilities, enabling unified scheduling, intelligent distribution, and efficient collaboration of computing resources nationwide, marking a decisive step forward in Zhengzhou’s “computing power city” development.

Surrounded by strong competitors, how can Yichang break through?

“Compared with provincial capitals like Zhengzhou, Yichang still faces gaps and challenges in scientific research, technology, and talent. It needs to accelerate addressing these shortcomings,” Qin Zunwen pointed out. While continuing to leverage the cost advantages of green electricity, Yichang should also make good use of high-level innovation platforms like the Three Gorges Laboratory and local universities such as Three Gorges University to empower the development of the computing and big data industries from a “soft power” perspective.