Musk Releases Computing Power "Satellites," Merlin Cloud Reaches New Phase High

(Source: Caixin)

Domestic operators and cloud service providers are expected to continue increasing capital expenditures. The domestic substitution of the chip industry supply chain is likely to deepen, with broad growth potential remaining for domestic computing power vendors and upstream semiconductor equipment and materials sectors.

On March 24, the computing power sector was active again, with Lianang Technology (300603.SZ) rising over 10%, Aoruite (600666.SH) and Zhanshitong (002771.SZ) hitting the daily limit. Popular stocks Meiliyun (000815.SZ) reached a new high for this stage, while PZ Information (300571.SZ), Lianhua Holdings (600186.SH), Reisconda (603803.SH), and Qunxing Toys (002575.SZ) also saw active gains.

On March 22, Elon Musk held the Terafab project launch event in Austin, Texas, announcing the official launch of the Terafab project, a joint effort by Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI. The project involves a 2-nanometer wafer fabrication plant and is seen as a key move by Musk to break through the global chip supply bottleneck. Tesla describes it as “the largest chip manufacturing plant ever,” aiming to produce 1 terawatt (TW) of AI computing power chips annually, mainly deployed in space. Musk stated that the current global annual AI computing power production is about 20 gigawatts, and Terafab’s annual capacity is equivalent to 50 times that amount.

Additionally, Liu Liehong, Director of the National Data Bureau, said at the China Development High-Level Forum 2026 Annual Meeting on March 23 that the construction of a national integrated computing power network has been included in the 14th Five-Year Plan. Moving forward, the National Data Bureau will accelerate the development of national hub computing facilities clusters, support regions with conditions to develop computing power based on low-latency scenarios, and promote cloud-edge-end collaboration. Strengthening nationwide integrated computing power monitoring and dispatch, improving computing power access and precise matching capabilities, and increasing resource utilization efficiency will better meet the strong demand for computing resources from small and medium-sized enterprises and research institutions.

Industrial Securities pointed out that leading domestic tech companies continue to increase capital expenditure and accelerate the iteration of domestic large models, driving continuous improvement in domestic chip performance and building a self-controlled, independent ecosystem. As AI penetrates fully into terminal scenarios, domestic operators and cloud providers are expected to further boost capital investments. The domestic chip industry supply chain substitution is likely to deepen, and sectors such as domestic computing power vendors and upstream semiconductor equipment and materials still have broad growth prospects.