Media365
Representatives of China’s semiconductor industry are calling for stronger state backing in artificial intelligence chips and critical materials, aiming to fast-track core technology breakthroughs.
Zhang Yunquan, a professor specialising in high-performance computing at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the government should take a greater role in regulating the prices of AI computing power, which is delivered by chips running in data centres for modern AI workloads.
“Competition among companies is fierce, with most resorting to low-price tactics, leading to ‘involutionary’ competition,” he told the South China Morning Post during the sessions, referring to cutthroat, low-quality price competition – prevalent in sectors ranging from electric vehicles (EVs) to food delivery – that Beijing has vowed to combat.
Zhang, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, suggested that the government could issue pricing guidelines on AI computing power. He proposed that the country establish a “unified trading market where computing power across the country can be traded uniformly”, making computing power “a commodity like electricity or oil”.
Hao Yue, a deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC) and vice-president of Xidian University in Xian, Shaanxi province, highlighted China’s “industrial leverage” in rare earth elements.
