China's cheap electricity gives it a decisive edge over the US in the AI data centre race

While the United States leads in advanced AI chip technology, China holds a structural advantage in the cheap, abundant electricity needed to power AI data centres — China already generates more than twice as much electricity as the US, a lead set to widen as BloombergNEF estimates China will add more than six times the electricity capacity of the US over the next five years. In 2025 alone, China increased its wind and solar capacity by more than 430 gigawatts, accounting for over half of all new global renewable capacity added that year. Under its 'East Data, West Computing' initiative, Beijing is co-locating new data centres with renewable energy sources in China's interior, and this month launched a 500-megawatt wind-and-solar project in the northwestern Ningxia region directly powering a Huawei cloud data centre.