A major shift in investment strategy is quietly underway.
The National Development and Reform Commission recently announced plans to advance construction in key areas including power grids, computing networks, and other critical infrastructure, with initial estimates indicating investments exceeding 7 trillion yuan this year. This scale of investment recalls the 4 trillion yuan stimulus of 2009. Large-scale investments have historically served as powerful tools for economic stabilization and precursors to industrial upgrades. While both represent substantial infrastructure spending, they occur at different developmental stages with distinct focuses, industrial momentum, and long-term impacts.
The previous 4 trillion yuan initiative primarily targeted traditional infrastructure like railways, highways, and airports, initiating nationwide connectivity projects and a widespread real estate boom. The current 7 trillion yuan program focuses significantly on "new infrastructure projects" and social welfare infrastructure. A recent high-level meeting marked the first official mention of implementing "large-scale intelligent computing clusters and computing-power coordination" as part of these new infrastructure initiatives. Although the concept of new infrastructure isn't novel, its elevation to "new infrastructure engineering" status and inclusion among the 109 major projects in the 15th Five-Year Plan underscores its strategic importance.
The core objective of new infrastructure lies in building the digital foundation for the数字经济 and artificial intelligence era, with power grids, computing networks, communication networks, and satellite internet being pivotal components. Parallel to new infrastructure development is the advancement of social infrastructure encompassing education, healthcare, elderly care, and child welfare services. This transition from investing in physical assets to investing in human capital addresses existing gaps while simultaneously stimulating domestic demand, stabilizing expectations, and supporting demographic policies.
Both new infrastructure and social infrastructure represent long-term endeavors spanning five years, decades, or even longer, rather than short-term or localized projects. The 7 trillion yuan investment figure reflects only the current year's commitment, with total cycle investments potentially reaching tens of trillions, highlighting profound economic implications.
Among various new infrastructure categories, intelligent computing clusters and computing-power coordination attract particular attention. If the internet served as the "water, electricity, and coal" of the digital economy era, data represents the "new oil" of the AI age, with computing power acting as the core engine and electrical power providing fundamental support. The significance of computing power is universally recognized, as AI essentially substitutes human labor with computational capacity, making intelligent computing clusters critical infrastructure.
China initiated the "East Data West Computing" project years ago, establishing ten national data center clusters to leverage western regions' green energy advantages. However, this project primarily addresses data storage and AI training needs, with long-distance transmission introducing latency issues unsuitable for AI's real-time reasoning requirements. Consequently, developing large-scale intelligent computing clusters in eastern megacities becomes imperative. Major cities are now planning domestic intelligent computing clusters ranging from 50,000 to 100,000 units to capture emerging opportunities.
The competition extends beyond computing clusters to power infrastructure, as electricity supply ultimately determines computing capacity limits. The International Energy Agency predicts global AI electricity consumption could double by 2030, approaching 1 trillion kWh—equivalent to Japan's annual usage. Thus, in the AI era, power availability directly influences a nation's cost competitiveness in the intelligent economy. As the world's largest electricity producer, China exceeded 10 trillion kWh in power consumption in 2025, with renewable sources comprising nearly 40%. Compared to Western nations, China demonstrates rapid renewable energy development, possesses extensive ultra-high voltage grids, and maintains comprehensive power manufacturing industries, creating unique advantages.
Power infrastructure investments continue accelerating, with State Grid Corporation planning 4 trillion yuan in fixed-asset investments during the 15th Five-Year Plan period—a 40% increase from the previous plan. The critical challenge lies not in power or computing deficiencies but in cross-regional coordination, explaining why "computing-power coordination" receives emphasized attention.
The 15th Five-Year Plan outline features numerous references to "basic completion," signaling traditional infrastructure's transition from rapid expansion to stabilization. The plan targets essentially completing the "Eight Vertical and Eight Horizontal" high-speed rail network and national expressway system by 2030, alongside establishing world-class port and airport clusters. This indicates that after decades of intensive construction, comprehensive transportation networks have largely taken shape, achieving extensive coverage of high-speed rail, expressways, ports, and airports.
Currently, approximately 84% of the high-speed rail backbone network is operational, spanning over 50,000 kilometers and serving 97% of cities with populations exceeding 500,000. Twelve provinces have achieved high-speed rail connectivity across all prefectural cities. Expressways cover 99% of cities with populations above 200,000, with five provinces exceeding 10,000 kilometers of expressway mileage. China maintains nearly 3,000 berths for 10,000-ton vessels, leading globally in port capacity for years, while operating 270 airports handling over 1.5 billion passengers annually, placing it among world leaders.
Therefore, considering local debt constraints and demographic trends, traditional infrastructure will shift from scale expansion to functional enhancement and gap-filling. Nevertheless, several mega-projects remain poised for development, including trillion-yuan-level hydropower stations, 500-billion-yuan railway projects, and hundred-billion-yuan cross-sea channels and water diversion initiatives.
The transition from traditional to new and social infrastructure will define investment priorities over the next five years, serving as key variables in urban competitiveness. As macroeconomic conditions, development models, and investment directions evolve, competitive strategies must correspondingly adapt.