(Yicai) May 8 -- Shanghai's Lingang Special Area aims to become a CNY10 billion (USD1.4 billion) cluster of data centers by next year.

Smart computing power should make up four-fifths of the headline sum, Tang Hao, deputy director of the area's administration, said at a conference yesterday. Lingang will form a diversified system based on intelligent computing, combining basic and super processing, Tang added.

Lingang rolled out a new policy yesterday to give as high as CNY10 million (USD1.4 million) subsidies for a maximum of five years to new data centers with an intelligent capacity of over 1,000 petaflops. The area also has subsidies to support green and independent development.

Formed in 2019, Lingang has attracted eight data centers, including those built by the three major domestic wireless carriers, SenseTime Group, and cloud computing operator Yovole Networks.

Lingang's combined power usage effectiveness is lower than 1.3, indicating energy efficiency not far from the optimal of one, and the dispatchable computing load is about three exaflops, or around 20 percent of Shanghai's total.

By 2025, Lingang aims to raise the level of dispatchable load to exceed five eflops and keep the PUE under 1.25, Tang said.

The area has also entered the era of large language model training, helping China Telecom launch its TeleChat and SenseTime debut SenseNova 5.0. Lingang announced that it aims to advance connections between data centers and developers of LLMs to expand the application of artificial intelligence while promoting the sustainable development of the digital economy.

Editor: Emmi Laine