News from CCTV: Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, once world-famous for its notebook computer manufacturing, is now using its wealth in the electronic information industry accumulated over more than 30 years to quickly step into the forefront of the AI ​​computing industry. From traditional computer manufacturing to the emerging computing industry, what did Kunshan rely on to turn around?

The reporter’s first stop when he came to Kunshan was this circuit board manufacturer in the High-tech Zone. As soon as you enter the park, the first thing you feel is the busyness: trucks pulling goods in and out, trucks transporting construction materials, and cement mixer trucks passing by. The construction of new factories and the production of old workshops are running at high speed here.

Li Minggui, the company's deputy general manager, told reporters that the company is now producing and building buildings at the same time, and is racing against time everywhere.

This company has been based in Kunshan for more than 30 years. In the past, the circuit boards it produced were mainly used in notebook computers and mainframes. In the past two years, as market demand has changed, AI computing power-related hardware has continued to explode in orders. With years of technology accumulation, the company has invested more than 20 billion yuan in the past 18 months to build new factories and expand equipment. The investment intensity has exceeded the total of the previous 30 years.

Li Minggui told reporters that the new factory is still under construction and production can no longer keep up with orders. They can only transform some offices into production lines. The office was converted into a production line, and management staff temporarily worked in the cafeteria.

This is not the only company that is busy. In the neighboring town of Zhoushi, this cooling module manufacturer is also operating at full capacity. The hall is full of people coming for interviews, and multiple positions are being recruited simultaneously to meet the needs of new projects.

From producing cooling modules for computers in the past to now providing liquid cooling modules for AI servers, companies have quickly kept pace with the development needs of the computing power industry. In order to speed up production expansion, companies rent nearby factories and open new production lines as quickly as possible.

The confidence to offline an AI server in 70 seconds

Where does the confidence come from when old factories dare to spend real money to expand production and turn around without hesitation? We found the answer in the Kunshan production workshop: a high-end AI server, from core components to the complete machine offline, can be completed locally.

Kunshan is the first county-level city in the country to have both supercomputing and intelligent computing infrastructure.

In the campus of this AI server complete enterprise, there is a National Supercomputing Center. These neatly arranged equipment continue to provide high-end computing power for scientific research and industry, and almost all of them are produced locally.

CCTV reporter Zhang Congjing: Next to me is an AI server that has just gone offline. It is the core computing unit of the data center. An AI server can be offline every 70 seconds or so here, and the production speed here is not only fast, but the production capacity is also very strong. Such a production line can produce hundreds of models of AI servers, and all core components of the server are locally sourced.

At present, the annual production capacity of this company's AI servers has exceeded one million units. The person in charge of the company said that stable and efficient production relies on the mature and complete local industrial chain.

Nie Hua, Chairman of Zhongke Controllable Information Industry Co., Ltd.: The Yangtze River Delta and Kunshan areas have the best supporting and supply capabilities in the country. When global substrates are out of stock, we can enjoy Kunshan’s local supply advantages.

In the past, Kunshan built an electronic information industry chain from scratch by "dismantling laptops to attract investment", forming today's 800 billion-level industrial cluster with 35,000 industrial enterprises, laying a solid foundation for undertaking the transformation of the AI ​​computing power industry.

From laptops to AI servers, products have been iteratively upgraded, putting forward higher requirements for hardware and technology. In the past, key core components relied on imports for a long time. Now, driven by leading enterprises, upstream and downstream companies work together to tackle key problems, gradually achieving local supply and independent control from parts production to complete machine manufacturing.

How to keep up with the new trend using old methods?

A complete and constantly upgrading industrial chain is the core code of China’s manufacturing renewal. New industries and new tracks are iterating faster and faster. Can this methodology keep up with the new trend? This is also a common issue facing many traditional manufacturing bases in Kunshan and even across the country.

Not long ago, Kunshan released an innovative development plan for artificial intelligence, clarifying goals and seizing development opportunities in new tracks. Relying on the existing electronic information industry foundation, the local area is systematically laying out a complete computing power ecosystem from chips, complete machines to applications.

During local interviews, the reporter learned that many project sites have government staff providing door-to-door services. In response to the urgent problems that enterprises need to solve when expanding production, special work teams have been set up locally to work on-site and coordinate in a timely manner to clear obstacles for enterprise development.

From a global notebook computer manufacturing base to a center for the intelligent computing industry, Kunshan is completing an intelligent upgrade of the entire industry chain.

In those days, industrial advantages were achieved by dismantling the entire machine and recruiting precise investment. Today, this set of ideas is used in the development of the AI ​​industry: strengthening and replenishing chains, ecological synergy, and transforming the advantages of the complete industrial chain into the development momentum of new productivity.

The continuously upgraded and continuously improved whole-industry chain system gives traditional industries the confidence to transform and upgrade, provides the ground for rapid implementation of unbridled ideas, and gives manufacturing bases that have been cultivated for many years the ability to calmly switch to new tracks.

This spring, what we see is not only the recovery of industrial data in the first quarter, but also the proactive changes and steady progress of China's manufacturing industry in the wave of intelligence, relying on the industrial chain assets accumulated over decades. This continuously extending and growing industrial chain is the greatest confidence for Made in China to cope with changes and seize opportunities.