China Computing Power Ranks Second Globally as AI Servers Overtake General Servers for First Time: Five Sub-Sectors Define the Future

China total computing power reached 962 EFLOPS in 2025, ranking second globally with 21% of worldwide capacity, according to the 2025 China Server Industry Development Report released at the Smart Computing Foundation event on July 23-24. The computing structure has undergone a fundamental reversal, with AI computing growth far exceeding general-purpose and supercomputing to become the absolute incremental source. The report highlights five sub-sectors with clear growth trajectories: high-end computing, green energy efficiency, domestic substitution through Xinchuang, global expansion, and computing services.

China shipped 4.727 million server units with 466.26 billion yuan revenue in 2025, up 14.

7% and 55.3% YoY. Average unit price reached about 111,900 yuan, reflecting structural shift toward AI servers with high-end chips and HBM.

AI server sales surpassed general-purpose server sales for the first time in 2025. China AI server market reached 761,000 units sold with 253.03 billion yuan revenue, growing 69.

1% and 83.4% year-over-year respectively. The compound annual growth rate from 2021 to 2025 reached 34.

7% for volume and 63.3% for revenue, far exceeding general server growth. The demand pyramid is highly concentrated: the top five sectors of internet, telecom operators, government, IDC service providers, and financial services together captured 90.

5% of the market. Internet companies alone accounted for 170.04 billion yuan, driven by large model arms race and infrastructure buildout.

The high-end computing track shows the strongest growth certainty with AI server revenue growth rates far exceeding both general servers and overall company revenue. Green energy represents a policy-driven long-term trend as traditional air-cooled servers cannot sustain large-scale high-density computing clusters, making liquid cooling adoption an industry inevitability. Domestic substitution through Xinchuang provides policy-backed stable growth as government, finance, energy, and m