What does AI change inside a data centre?
By the end of this lesson: Understand power density, cooling and networking; learn why MW labels can describe different economic states; connect the building to the compute system.
← Learning pathWhy it matters: a chip becomes useful capacity only after power, cooling, networking, software and customer workloads are all present.
What changes physically
Large AI clusters can drive higher rack power density, liquid-cooling requirements, much denser fibre and stricter power-quality needs. Huawei and Chinese operators increasingly describe AIDC design as a system spanning power supply, cooling, network architecture, compute deployment and operations.
What a megawatt figure does — and does not — tell you
Announced, reserved, contracted, powered, delivered, occupied and revenue-generating megawatts are not equivalent. Our company work therefore tracks the conversion chain from resource and contract through energisation, customer move-in, utilisation and cash economics.
Where VNET and GDS fit
VNET and GDS are both data-centre infrastructure companies, but their asset footprints, customer relationships, financing structures and possible roles in wider compute-energy coordination differ. The architecture label alone does not establish which operator captures more value.
Evidence, claims and limits
- Huawei: Grid-Interactive AIDC, Sep 2026 — primary company source
- Huawei: Global AIDC Industry Summit, May 2026 — primary company source
Can you apply the idea?
Choose an answer, then reveal the reasoning. This is not scored — the aim is to practise distinguishing what evidence proves from what it merely suggests.