Smartphone AI assistants respond instantly, high-definition games run smoothly without lag, and in-car navigation accurately pinpoints every route—these intelligent experiences rely on computing power. According to the 2025 Comprehensive Computing Power Index by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Hebei Province ranks first nationally in both comprehensive computing power index and computing power sub-index, with Langfang and Zhangjiakou holding the top two spots in the city-level computing power sub-index.
Computing power is a new form of productivity in the digital economy era and a cornerstone of artificial intelligence. Hebei has seized opportunities from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development and the national "East Data, West Computing" project, actively taking on the transfer of Beijing's data resources, algorithm training, and modeling services. By promoting deep integration of "computing power plus scenarios," it aims to generate new growth drivers.
Recently, at the Haoyang Langfang No. 1 Data Center Park in Gu'an County, staff conducted inspections of the freezing station. Hebei Daily reporter Wang Wei photographed the scene.
Seizing Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Development Opportunities, Computing Power Scale Leads Nationwide
How long does it take for data to travel from Haidian District, Beijing, to Langfang City? Less than two milliseconds—that's the speed of data transmission. At the China Unicom Langfang Smart Cloud Data Center in Langfang, rows of server cabinets are neatly arranged with flickering indicator lights. Center head Wen Yuan explained, "Through these servers, 3400 PFlops (one PFlop equals one quadrillion floating-point operations per second) of intelligent computing power serves Beijing-based top internet companies daily, with network latency controlled within two milliseconds."
Computing power, integrating information processing, network transport, and data storage, is a new form of productivity primarily delivered through computing centers and other infrastructure. Launched in 2014, the China Unicom Langfang Smart Cloud Data Center is the first T3+ level large-scale data center in Hebei and a key node in China Unicom's "1+1+N+X" three-tier intelligent computing layout, serving as a crucial hub for AI training and inference in the "East Data" hot region. Since its establishment, it has built and operated six server buildings.
Why choose Langfang, and why do clients favor it? "Langfang, located between Beijing and Tianjin, offers unmatched geographic advantages with low network latency," said Qiao Haozhe, head of computing power at China Unicom Langfang. Data transmitted via fiber optics experiences lower latency over shorter distances. For internet giants and financial institutions, being closer to Beijing by just one kilometer is a significant advantage.
With the explosive growth of generative AI applications, demand for computing power has surged rapidly. Seizing opportunities from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development and the "East Data, West Computing" project, the China Unicom Langfang Smart Cloud Data Center has continuously expanded. "We plan to commission one more 15-megawatt intelligent computing server building by the end of this year to further support AI industry development in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region," Qiao Haozhe said. Beyond self-built data centers, China Unicom leverages its network and service capabilities to collaborate with other partners in Langfang to provide high-quality computing services to Beijing and Tianjin clients.
Adjacent to Beijing with low data latency, Hebei is seizing the AI opportunity to push for intelligent computing. In Langfang, the Runze AI Application Center Phase I was put into use in May this year, and the Gu'an County Haoyang Langfang No. 1 Data Center Park continues to develop. Among the top ten national data center service providers, seven have established operations in Langfang. In Zhangjiakou, the China Telecom Smart Cloud Base Huailai Park Phase II started construction in April, planning to install 3,000 high-power cabinets; the Century Interconnection North China Cloud Computing Center Base Phase II is accelerating construction, with partial operation expected by year-end. Currently, Hebei has formed two major computing power hubs in Zhangjiakou and Langfang, linking Shijiazhuang, Baoding, and other cities to build a ring-capital intelligent computing cluster. As of the end of March 2026, the province's intelligent computing scale reached 384,000 PFlops.
Pooling computing power into a network with scheduling creates a strong supply hub. Recently, the Hebei Provincial Integrated Computing Power Network Platform, built by Langfang, was launched. This is the first provincial-level computing power monitoring and scheduling platform in China, integrating monitoring data from 167 data centers within the province. By consolidating scattered idle computing resources and using intelligent scheduling algorithms, it provides low-cost, flexible computing services for high-frequency scenarios like AI inference and scientific research.
On July 8, a photo captured the Heyun Data (Huailai) Technology Park. Hebei Daily reporter Geng Hui took the photo.
Computing-Power Electrification, Green Industry Clusters Flourish
At the Hengyuan New Energy Power Station in Guyuan County, Zhangjiakou, white wind turbine blades spin in the breeze, converting wind into green electricity. 240 kilometers away, in the Huailai Technology Park of Heyun Data, servers power countless digital scenarios. "Under the unified regulation of the Jibei Power Grid, the green electricity from our new energy station is converted into computing power at the park, achieving synergy between the data center and green electricity," said Lv Zhiyong, regional general manager for Huailai at Beijing Zhongke Heyun Data Technology Co., Ltd. The company has built multiple new energy stations in Yuxian, Guyuan, and Zhangbei of Zhangjiakou, with a total installed capacity of 2.78 gigawatts connected to the grid. Once fully connected, annual power generation can meet the park's electricity needs for a year.
Electricity is the foundation of computing power. A large data center can consume hundreds of millions of kilowatt-hours annually, with electricity costs accounting for over 50% of operating expenses. Under the "dual carbon" goals, computing power must be not only fast but also green and low-carbon. At the Heyun Data (Huailai) Technology Park, computing tasks run at full capacity when clean electricity is abundant; when renewable energy generation is unstable, the data center uses energy storage projects for power supply. Through intelligent scheduling of "source-grid-load-storage," green electricity and computing power achieve precise matching and bidirectional synergy. This is the true face of "computing-power electrification"—no longer just grid-to-data-center one-way supply, but deep collaboration between computing power and green electricity.
"Our computing-power electrification model was selected as one of the first batch of excellent cases by the National Data Administration, with some park projects achieving 100% stable green electricity supply," Lv Zhiyong added. As the largest source-grid-load-storage integrated carbon neutrality demonstration project in the ring-capital region, the Heyun Data (Huailai) Technology Park has an operational IT capacity of 700 megawatts, absorbing real-time computing power overflow from Beijing's internet, finance, and AI training sectors. Currently, the park's green electricity usage ratio exceeds 50%, and the ND11 data center was included in the 2025 National Green Data Center list by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
As the only national-level renewable energy demonstration zone in China, Zhangjiakou is rich in wind and solar resources with abundant green electricity, providing a stable power source for large data centers. Leveraging its green electricity resources, Zhangjiakou, as the core node of the "East Data, West Computing" project's Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei hub, is accelerating the integration of computing power and electricity, putting new computing infrastructure on the green energy fast track. This solves carbon reduction challenges at the source, opening up greater development space, and making several companies leaders in green computing. Currently, the Tencent Computing Center in Zhangjiakou achieves 100% green electricity supply; seven projects, including the Alibaba Miaotan Computing Center, have been selected for the National Green Computing Center list; Zhongming Technology and Heyun Data have been recognized as national computing-power electrification demonstration projects; and four computing center projects, including Qinshui Data, Zhangbei Yunlian, Zhangbei Rongtai, and Zhongming Energy, have been approved as green electricity direct-connection demonstration projects.
Green electricity and green computing progress hand in hand. By the end of June, Zhangjiakou's new energy installed capacity reached 45.11 gigawatts, accounting for nearly 90% of total installed capacity, with 53 computing centers in operation. In the first half of the year, the city's computing centers consumed 62.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, with green electricity comprising 54.5%. Computing-power electrification and green electricity direct connections have also driven the development of the new energy industry. From January to June this year, Hebei Province added 6.245 gigawatts of new renewable energy grid-connected capacity, reaching a cumulative total of 156.859 gigawatts. The total installed capacity of renewable energy on the grid accounted for 73.6% of the province's total power capacity, up 1.5 percentage points year-on-year. Among these, the cumulative installed capacity of wind and solar power ranks among the top nationwide.
Recently, an aerial photo captured the Hebei Qinshui Data Cunrui Base in Huailai County. Hebei Daily reporter Geng Hui took the photo.
Computing Power Empowers Industries, AI Enables Thousands of Sectors
Recently, at the Runkai Artificial Intelligence Technology (Hebei) Co., Ltd. R&D center in Shijiazhuang, screens displayed lines of code as technicians accelerated iterations of large models and intelligent agents. "We plan to release four new products this year, and the computing power we use comes from the Shijiazhuang AI Computing Center," said company operations director Gao Lijie. Since its establishment in March last year, Runkai Technology has launched five products, generating nearly 20 million yuan in revenue, all supported by the Shijiazhuang AI Computing Center. Gao Lijie calculated: purchasing servers involves high hardware costs and frequent upgrades, putting pressure on capital; using intelligent computing center power on a pay-per-use, elastic expansion basis offers better value for money, meeting diverse algorithm and application development needs.
Advanced computing power attracts many companies to collaborate. "Among our users, the number of Hebei-based companies is growing, now accounting for nearly half, reflecting the rapid development of emerging industries in Hebei," said Wang Wei, deputy general manager of the Shijiazhuang AI Computing Center. Currently, the center's intelligent computing scale is 110 PFlops, with supply falling short of demand. The hot market excites Wang Wei, who is busy preparing for center expansion to better serve AI industry development.
In Hebei, data is shifting from "storing" to "running" and "using," as the integration effect of "computing power plus industry" continues to release, transforming computing power advantages into new momentum for industrial development. Emerging industries are growing rapidly. The Hebei AI Computing Center has incubated over 170 scenario-based solutions. Langfang releases up to 10 million yuan in computing power vouchers annually, attracting dozens of AI startups to set up there. A batch of supporting enterprises in algorithm research and data annotation is growing quickly. To date, Hebei has developed 413 vertical large models and 86 intelligent agents across 26 fields, including steel, chemicals, and transportation, injecting new energy into the province's economic and social development.
Industrial chains are extending. Cabinets come from Cangzhou, distribution cabinets from Shijiazhuang—at the Haoyang Langfang No. 1 Data Center Park, the proportion of locally sourced components in Hebei is significantly increasing, with a series of "Made in Hebei" products adding to the computing power base. Leveraging data storage and computing power advantages, Hebei is accelerating data development and utilization, actively attracting upstream and downstream enterprises in the big data industry, forming a preliminary full-chain industry of "data storage + computing power scheduling + equipment manufacturing + application services."
Traditional industries are accelerating transformation. Hebei Yongyang Special Steel Group Co., Ltd. equipped its converter production line with a "smart brain"—the converter intelligent steelmaking large model—shortening the smelting cycle by about two minutes, reducing steel material consumption per ton by 2 to 7 kilograms, and lowering costs per ton by 5 to 15 yuan. While reducing steelmaking costs, the fluctuation in steel quality has significantly decreased, greatly improving product consistency. By strengthening the computing power base, enriching application scenarios, and cultivating a complete ecosystem, Hebei's computing power industry is surging with momentum. To date, over 117,000 enterprises in Hebei have gone online, and the rate of enterprise industrial equipment being cloud-connected remains first in the country.
Data converges in Hebei; computing leads the future. Hebei will support Langfang and Zhangjiakou in building AI innovation and development leading zones. It will deepen the "AI+" action plan, promoting the intelligent, green, and integrated development of traditional industries like steel, equipment manufacturing, and petrochemicals. It will expand computing power applications in areas such as government services and people's livelihood, empowering thousands of industries and serving millions of households. (Text by Hebei Daily reporter Mi Yanze)
Reporter's Notes: Computing Power Roots Deep, Industry Grows Upward
What is computing power? It is the flickering lights of data center servers, the scrolling code on startup engineers' screens, and the "smart brain" for steelmaking in converters. The deeper the interview, the stronger the feeling: abstract cloud computing power is becoming tangible productivity in factories, power grids, bank counters, and home devices. Computing power is computational ability. In today's industrial competition, the key to victory is "computing," including computing power, algorithms, and data. In recent years, Hebei has leveraged its proximity to Beijing and low data latency to build a leading computing power ecosystem, maintaining the top spot nationally in both comprehensive computing power index and computing power sub-index for two consecutive years.
When computing power thrives, industries thrive. Estimates suggest that for every 1 yuan invested in computing power, 3 to 4 yuan of GDP growth is generated. Accelerating computing power construction can effectively stimulate the innovative vitality of data elements, amplifying, superimposing, and multiplying economic development efficiency. Computing power must root deep for industries to grow upward. Hebei is further transforming its computing power advantages into industrial and development advantages, turning cold numbers into productive forces that are "efficiently usable, universally shared, and innovatively empowering," actively creating new forms of intelligent economy.
Computing power itself is a new quality productive force. Hebei is accelerating the deployment of intelligent computing infrastructure in the ring-capital region, attracting major big data industry leaders like Runze Technology and Heyun Data to invest and settle in Hebei. For example, Heyun Data has invested 18 billion yuan in Huailai to build the Heyun Data (Huailai) Technology Park, and Haoyang Data plans to invest an additional 4 billion yuan in Langfang for new projects. Computing power infrastructure construction drives the agglomeration of upstream and downstream industrial chains, including servers, optical modules, and computing power scheduling. Abundant computing power resources also attract emerging industries like AI to settle. Langfang has drawn dozens of AI startups, with a batch of supporting enterprises in algorithm research and data annotation growing rapidly.
Computing power empowers the real economy, promoting digital and intelligent upgrades. The value of computing power lies in its use. With computing power, AI technology penetrates all industries. In traditional steel and other industries, intelligent large models optimize production processes, reduce costs, and improve quality and efficiency. In the science and technology innovation field, efficient computing power compresses model iteration cycles from weeks or months to days, significantly reducing trial-and-error costs. During interviews, the reporter saw with delight that more Hebei enterprises are using computing power and AI for transformation and upgrades, and many data centers have computing power supply falling short of demand—this reflects both market recognition of Hebei's computing power and the internal demand for industrial change. Computing power takes root in fertile soil, and industries grow toward the sun. Hebei's path of integrating "computing power plus industry" is becoming increasingly solid.
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