VNET · Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, China

VNET Bayin Ulanqab

252MW

The power of 200,000 US homes.

Drawing power since Jul 2025. Projected to reach 798 MW by Sep 2027.

Capital cost
$8.4B
Chips
Ascend 910C
Users
ByteDance (unconfirmed)
Project
10 GW Hyperscale 2.0
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Power over time

facility power · 9 milestones
Every milestone
  1. 15 Mar 2024 — Land clearing begins late March, as can be seen in satellite images (eastern part: buildings 1 & 2). VNET officially announces its signing ceremony with the Ulanqab municipal government and Shandong Hi-Speed Holdings.
  2. 5 Feb 2025 — Satellite imagery shows five buildings (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) under construction. Chillers are in place, but no roof is complete for any building.
  3. 1 Jul 2025 43 MW Building 1 is operational, based on a 3-month fit-out period after structural completion in April, as can be seen from satellite imagery.
  4. 1 Aug 2025 43 MW Satellite imagery shows that in total nine buildings have started construction, with building 1 being the only one operational. Buildings 2 and 5 are structurally complete, and the final roofs for buildings 3 and 4 have begun.
  5. 1 Nov 2025 194 MW Buildings 2 and 5 are operational, based on a 3-month fit-out period after structural completion in August, as can be seen from satellite imagery. Land clearing for the northern part of campus (buildings 10 and 11) has started.
  6. 1 Dec 2025 252 MW Building 4 is operational, similarly based on a 3-month fit-out period after structural completion in September, as seen from satellite imagery.
  7. 5 Mar 2026 252 MW Satellite imagery shows four operational buildings (1, 2, 4, 5), and the western part of campus (6, 7, 8, 9) has made significant construction progress. The foundation for the northern part of campus (10, 11) has started.
  8. 6 May 2026 252 MW Satellite imagery shows building 9 has completed all its chillers, with only its roof remaining. Previous building completion timelines would imply this building will be operational by the end of 2026.
  9. 1 Sep 2027 · projected 798 MW Estimated: the nine-building section of the campus is projected to be fully operational by late 2027 or early 2028. VNET's eastern cluster (buildings 1-5) took roughly a year each from clearing to operational based on satellite imagery. The western cluster (buildings 6-9) was cleared in late 2024 but as of mid-2026 is not yet structurally complete, putting each on track for ~2 years from clearing to operational. Buildings 10 and 11 are projected to be completed sometime later. Comparable data centers in Ulanqab are expected to take at least 6 months per phase (China Unicom).

Every step Epoch planned here on 2 Sep 2026 is still on plan. Planned against reached

Coal made 54% of the power in China

share of generation · Sep 2025 to Aug 2026

China World

  1. Gas 3%
  2. Coal 54%
  3. Other fossil 1%
  4. Nuclear 5%
  5. Wind 11%
  6. Solar 12%
  7. Hydro 13%
  8. Bio & other 1%

Fossil 58% (−2 pts on a year earlier) · nuclear 5% · renewables 37% · 554 g CO2e per kWh, life cycle · Sep 2025 to Aug 2026. Generation for all of China, without imports; the data does not show which grid feeds the site. Every country behind an AI site.

Sources

selected by Epoch AI
  1. Official VNET resource page for data centers
  2. Analyst report by Zhongtai Securities, citing 1-GW capacity goals
  3. Interview with VP Gavin Shen: campus will be AI-driven
  4. ByteDance-VNET 500 MW data center deal (China-wide)

Data: Epoch AI, “AI data centers”, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 22 Oct 2026. Facility power adds cooling and other overhead to the IT power the servers draw. Placed at the centre of Ulanqab. Grid: Ember, “Monthly Electricity Data and Yearly Electricity Data”, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 11 Oct 2026; shares computed here. All sources.