Author Ping Shuyu, fund assistant of intelligent Equity Investment Department of Zheshang fund
Recently, the national development and Reform Commission, the central network information office, the Ministry of industry and information technology and the National Energy Administration jointly issued documents, agreeing to start the construction of National Computing hub nodes in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao, Dawan District, Chengdu and Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Gansu and Ningxia, and planned 10 national data center clusters such as Zhangjiakou cluster. So far, the overall layout design of the national integrated big data center system has been completed, and the “counting from the east to the west” project has been officially launched.
What is the project of “counting East and counting West”? “Number” refers to data, “calculation” refers to computing power. “East West calculation” refers to the construction of a new computing power network system integrating data center, cloud computing and data, so as to orderly guide the computing power needs of the east to the west, optimize the construction layout of the data center and promote the coordination and linkage between the East and the West. Similar to the previous “four major projects” of “south to North Water Transfer”, “north to South Coal Transportation”, “west to East Gas Transmission” and “west to East power transmission”.
The importance of “counting from the east to the west” project is equivalent to the national policy. Although it is not a new policy, it will be affected by the superposition of multiple policies, and with the policy from brewing to maturity, and then to the implementation of today’s details, it releases a strong investment signal.
What are the investment opportunities behind the project? According to a reporter’s question on the implementation of the project of “counting from the east to the west” by the responsible comrades of the high technology department of the national development and Reform Commission, with the comprehensive and continuous penetration of digital technology into all fields of economy and society, the demand for computing power in the whole society is still very urgent, and it is expected to grow rapidly at a rate of more than 20% every year.
Computing power has become an important infrastructure for national economic development. What does not match the increasing demand for computing power is that the distribution of Chinese data computing power in the East and West is uneven. Data centers are mostly distributed in the eastern region. Due to the increasing shortage of land, energy and other resources, it is difficult to sustain the large-scale development of data centers in the eastern region. The western region is rich in resources, especially renewable energy. In the future, the western region needs to undertake more computing power needs in the East and realize the national integrated layout and optimal allocation of resources.
It is expected that after the implementation of the “counting from the east to the west” project, the resources of China’s data center will be gradually transferred from the east to the west, so that the resources of the data center in the East and the West are relatively balanced, so that the data can be better applied in the future. It is estimated that the scale of the data center will reach 5 million in 2025, and the shelf rate will reach the target of 65% in the East and west respectively.
“East digital West computing” project is a part of the coordinated innovation of the national integrated big data center and a major project to realize the national “digital network” strategic system. In the future, it will be affected by the double superposition of the policy of “national integrated big data center collaborative innovation system” and the policy of “new infrastructure”. It is expected that after the start of the project of “counting from the east to the west”, it will drive about 400 billion yuan of investment in the upstream and downstream of the industry.
The data center has a long industrial chain and strong driving effect. At present, the project is under construction, and investment opportunities can focus on IDC (Internet Data Center) industrial chain, such as leading industries of data center, water cooling, energy storage and other fields; Secondly, we can pay attention to upstream and downstream industries, such as servers and optical modules in communication; Finally, in the later stage of the project, we can pay attention to the partial application sectors, such as operation and maintenance, cloud computing, network security, power, energy, etc.
The investment opportunities in the industrial chain of the “counting from the east to the west” project are not a “flash in the pan” under the hot spot. With the completion of the implementation of key node projects, the future industrial upgrading and supporting facilities will bring potential investment opportunities and have long-term investment value. At present, it is still in the early stage of the project. The new infrastructure sector involved belongs to the forefront of the national strategy and can be focused on. (excerpts from the WeChat official account of Zhejiang Merchants Fund)
expert profile
Ping Shuyu, PhD in communication engineering from King’s college, University of London, successively served as quantitative analyst of stock derivatives of Citibank of America and trader of China Industrial And Commercial Bank Of China Limited(601398) precious metals business department. He joined Zheshang fund in 2020 and has nearly five years of financial experience, covering the industry: ICT industry (mainly computer & Communication).
(the views in this article are for reference only and do not constitute investment suggestions. Investment is risky and should be cautious when entering the market.)
