In the evening, a Beijing resident opens Douyin to create a short video using a new AI template. Within seconds of clicking render, a sci-fi-style video is generated. Unbeknownst to the user, the command and data are transmitted hundreds of kilometers away to Douyin's data center in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, where servers powered by green computing resources enable rapid special effects rendering. This round-trip process takes less than 5 milliseconds.
Hohhot has become China's largest financial data center cluster due to such minimal latency advantages. The city's total computing scale now exceeds 125,000 P, with intelligent computing comprising 96% of this capacity, ranking first nationally in green computing efficiency.
The city's industrial transformation stems from synergistic computing-power integration. With total installed power capacity reaching 21.38 million kW during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, including 7.10 million kW from renewable sources, Hohhot possesses inherent advantages for computing infrastructure. A wind-solar-storage power station operated by China Huadian Corporation supplies green electricity through a dedicated 41-km line to data centers in the Horinger New District.
This computing-power coordination model directly links renewable energy generation with computing infrastructure. As one of China's first demonstration projects, the Horinger data center cluster has established efficient power supply pathways where green electricity is transmitted directly from renewable stations to data centers without passing through the main grid, reducing intermediate costs and transmission losses.
The city's cool climate provides additional savings, with average annual temperatures of 7.7°C enabling natural cooling for approximately six months annually. Compared to humid regions, enterprises can reduce electricity costs by at least 20% under equivalent technical conditions.
These cost advantages have created magnetic effects for industrial clustering. The Horinger New District has attracted 66 large-scale computing center projects from national institutions, telecom operators, financial institutions, and leading enterprises.
Beyond power advantages, Hohhot is building a complete industrial ecosystem spanning upstream manufacturing, midstream scheduling, and downstream applications. Forty-five computing equipment manufacturers have established local production facilities for servers, electrical control equipment, cabinets, and sensors. Localized production reduces server procurement costs by over 30% and significantly shortens delivery times.
The Horinger New District's multi-cloud computing resource monitoring and scheduling platform, among the first provincial platforms connected to the national computing network, has achieved interoperability with Beijing, Wuhu, Guizhou, Chongqing, and Suzhou. Since trial operation began in January 2025, the platform has recorded transactions worth 91.31 million yuan, with annual transactions projected to reach 300-400 million yuan.
Hohhot has pioneered ultra-high-speed optical transmission systems with single-wavelength 1T capacity to Beijing, entering the T-bit era. The city was recently selected as Inner Mongolia's only representative in a national program for metropolitan computing efficiency.
Downstream applications are flourishing across various sectors. At Yili's Chilechuan smart ecological ranch, dairy cows wear digital identification tags that monitor activity, milk production, and sleep patterns. Automated milking systems have increased management efficiency by 30% while reducing disease incidence by 15%.
Computing applications are expanding into finance, healthcare, education, weather forecasting, genetic sequencing, and physical simulation. At Yili's global smart manufacturing base, intelligent systems monitor precise filling operations where robotic arms achieve efficiency equivalent to 60 workers.
Educational innovations are emerging at Inner Mongolia Normal University Affiliated Cloud Valley School, where smart classroom platforms generate personalized digital profiles for students based on real-time interaction data and knowledge mastery patterns.
Policy support further consolidates these developments. Hohhot allocated 128 million yuan in annual special funds to support computing enterprises, technological innovation, and talent recruitment. The city has also established a 3-billion-yuan new-generation information technology industrial fund targeting green computing, artificial intelligence, and data element commercialization.
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