On September 12, 2026, China's National Data Administration carried a State Council executive-meeting readout, sourced from gov.cn, on building the national computing-power network. The meeting stated that the computing-power network is the foundational support for the development of artificial intelligence. It called for a rational and orderly layout, further improvement of computing infrastructure, active R&D and application of key technologies and equipment, and construction of a multi-tiered, networked computing-power system. It also urged coordination between computing power and electricity and integration of computing and networks, stronger monitoring and scheduling of computing resources, more backbone fibre-optic construction, and faster rollout of green-electricity direct-connection and source-grid-load-storage projects. Finally, it called on market mechanisms to support firms in technology innovation, resource integration and application promotion so that supply and demand match better.
Our takeKeep the phrase foundational support: Beijing is treating AI less as a software race than as a power-and-infrastructure problem. Pairing compute with the electricity grid quietly concedes that energy, not algorithms, is the binding constraint. The next signal to watch is whether the green-power direct-connection deals become real, because that is what turns the plan into machines.