**Times reporter Ye Lingzhen.
After winning a number of computing power orders, Zhongbei Communication (603220) announced that it would increase the construction of intelligent computing centers.
On the evening of February 6, Zhongbei Communication announced that it plans to build computing power clusters in Qinghai, Shanxi and other places to provide customers with computing services, with a total investment of no more than 3 billion yuan.
On the same day, Zhongbei Communication announced another investment plan, planning to build a 5GWh power battery and energy storage system project in Canal New Town, Shushan Economic Development Zone, Hefei, Anhui Province, with an investment of no more than 800 million yuan.
Since 2023, generative AI has brought about changes in artificial intelligence technology, and various technology giants have rushed to launch large models, and the "100-model war" has begun, which has brought about a surge in demand for computing power.
Zhongbei Communication has been focusing on the fields of communication network, information and intelligence, computing and intelligent computing for many years, and has held a number of computing service agreements. However, the company also said that the performance of a number of recently signed computing service contracts has little impact on the current operating results, and there is some uncertainty in the follow-up implementation due to factors such as long contract terms and hardware procurement.
Judging from the time of signing the agreement, the computing power order acquisition time of Zhongbei Communication is concentrated in the past six months. On September 6, 2023, Zhongbei Communication announced that it signed a computing power service framework agreement with Qinghai Unicom to build a computing service platform based on H800 equipment and provide 960P computing power services to Qinghai Unicom, with a service fee of 120,000 yuan including tax, and a total amount of 3$4.6 billion; On September 18, the company officially announced that it had reached an AI computing service contract with Jinan Supercomputing Center, providing related services including computing power services, bandwidth, and storage, including 60 A800 computing power servers, with a total contract amount of 1800 million yuan.
In October 2023, Zhongbei Communication and Wildlook Tech PteLtd. signed a framework agreement on computing power services, and it is expected that the total amount involved in the contract is about 1$4.6 billion; As agreed, Wildlook Tech PteLTD intends to lease a capacity of 800p, leasing **250,000 US dollars, equivalent to about 180,000 yuan, is 50% higher than the previous agreement price with Qinghai Unicom in September. In November, Zhongbei Communication won the first computing power service order of Beijing Zhongke Xinyuan Technology, providing a total of 1920P AI computing power technical services to the latter, with a contract amount of 3$4.6 billion; According to this calculation, the unit price of computing power leasing is 180,000 yuan, which is roughly the same as in October.
Zhongbei Communication said that at present, the main customers of the company's computing power business are large model manufacturers, industry vertical customers, universities and scientific research institutes with AI computing power needs.
While developing the computing power market, Zhongbei Communication actively promotes the construction of computing power center. In July 2023, Zhongbei Communications will invest 70.3 billion yuan to acquire 70% of the equity of Anhui Rongboda Cloud Computing Data*** hereinafter referred to as Anhui Rongboda) and build a 3000p intelligent computing center project; In August, the company announced that it would use the computer room built by Anhui Rongboda to invest in the Hefei Intelligent Computing Center project in Hefei Shushan Economic and Technological Development Zone, with a planned investment of 8500 million yuan, of which 7 was spent on the purchase of servers and network supporting equipment4.3 billion yuan. According to the plan, the construction period of the project is 12 months, of which the first phase is 6 months.
It is reported that the Hefei Intelligent Computing Center mainly deploys AI computing power clusters based on international and domestic high-performance GPU servers, and builds 200G 400G 800G computing power networks and 100G 200G storage networks to achieve high-speed operation of computing and storage. At present, the first phase of the project has completed the civil engineering of the park pipe network and computer room, the power supply and distribution, HVAC, fire protection and decoration projects of the computer room have been started, and the procurement of related equipment is being stepped up.
In addition to Hefei, there are 3 intelligent computing centers in the planning of Zhongbei Communication, including Zhongbei Wudang Intelligent Computing Cluster, Qinghai Data Center, Inner Mongolia Mobile Computer Room or Ulanqab Computer Room. Among them, the Zhongbei Wudang Intelligent Computing Cluster was jointly built by Zhongbei Communication and Jianghan Group, and has been launched on October 20, 2023 to provide computing services; Qinghai data center is jointly built with Qinghai Unicom, and Zhongbei Communication is responsible for providing computing power servers and building management platforms.
In the face of the shortage of high-end AI computing power servers, Zhongbei Communication has continued to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with domestic GPU manufacturers while broadening the procurement channels and procurement efforts of international leading performance servers. On October 18, 2023, the company announced that it will cooperate with Huawei on computing power, covering Huawei Root Technology Ecosystem Alliance, Kunpeng + Ascend computing power cluster node data center, and other aspects. In the same month, the company reached a cooperation intention with Super Fusion, and planned to carry out strategic cooperation in the direction of computing center planning, investment and construction, and technical services.
In other links of the industrial chain, Zhongbei Communication has cooperated with UCD and Hengwei Technology, among which UCD has advantages in domestic computing software and computing network; The cooperation with Hengwei Technology is mainly in the field of visual integrated service operation and maintenance.
In terms of performance, Zhongbei Communication's revenue and net profit increased in the first three quarters of 2023, achieving an operating income of 19900 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21%; Achieved net profit attributable to the parent company of 10.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 50%.