In-depth Observation - Beyond Core Hardware: As the 15th Five-Year Plan's New Infrastructure Takes Root, Computing Power Supporting Facilities Usher in a Value Reassessment
Recently, the State Council executive meeting clarified the construction roadmap for the "Six Networks" (water network, new power grid, computing power network, new - generation communication network, urban underground pipeline network, and logistics network), marking that the new infrastructure with an annual investment of over 7 trillion yuan has become the core driving force for the 15th Five - Year Plan. The computing power, communication, and new energy sectors have opened up long - term development space. Industry data shows that computing power has firmly remained at the core of high - growth sectors, and its growth logic has gradually spread from upstream hardware to backend sectors such as liquid cooling, computing power leasing, and energy support, with new allocation opportunities hidden in niche markets.
From "Hardware Stacking" to "Computing - Power and Electricity Synergy": A Dialectical Upgrade of Scale and Efficiency
The computing power construction during the 15th Five - Year Plan has bid farewell to the extensive stage of simply pursuing scale expansion and entered a new stage driven by both scale expansion and efficiency optimization. Computing - power and electricity synergy has become the key to breaking through the energy - consumption bottleneck and unlocking the value of computing power.
In terms of scale, the computing power network, as the core engine of the "Six Networks", has seen unprecedented investment. Data from the National Development and Reform Commission shows that the investment in the computing power network exceeded 400 billion yuan in 2026, and the cumulative investment during the 15th Five - Year Plan will exceed 2 trillion yuan, accounting for nearly 30% of the total investment in the "Six Networks". As of the end of March 2026, China's intelligent computing power scale reached 188.2 exaflops. More than 70 large - scale computing power channels have been built in the past two years, and all eight national computing power hub nodes of the "East - to - West Computing" project have been fully put into operation. The newly added computing power in the national hub node areas accounts for more than 60% of the country's newly added computing power (source: China Government Network).
Behind the rapid scale expansion, the bottlenecks of energy consumption and efficiency have become increasingly prominent. With the iteration of AI chips, the power consumption of a single chip has exceeded one kilowatt (for example, the power consumption of NVIDIA's GB200 reaches 1200W), and the power of a single cabinet has jumped from the traditional 10kW to 30 - 50kW. The traditional air - cooling mode with a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) of only 1.8 - 2.0 can no longer meet the demand for high - density computing power. Therefore, the National Data Administration has clearly set a hard requirement: the PUE of newly built intelligent computing centers should be ≤ 1.3, and that of existing centers undergoing transformation should be ≤ 1.4.
The solution lies in the paradigm innovation of computing - power and electricity synergy. As of the end of 2025, 306 national green computing power facilities have been built across the country, with an average PUE reduced to 1.25. The proportion of green electricity in newly built data centers at national computing power hub nodes exceeds 80%. The case of the Shanghai Lingang Sub - sea Data Center directly connected to an offshore wind farm shows that direct green - electricity supply can increase the green - electricity supply rate of the data center to over 95%, reduce the PUE to 1.08 - 1.12, and cut costs by more than 30% compared with the traditional mode. It is estimated that by 2028, the proportion of green - electricity - based computing power in China will reach 60%, and computing power construction will officially shift from "high - energy - consumption expansion" to "green and efficient growth".
From "Auxiliary Support" to "Value Core": A Re - positioning of Independence and Integration
Backend sectors such as liquid cooling, computing power leasing, and energy support, which have long been regarded as "attachments to hardware", are growing into the value core of the computing power industry chain through technological breakthroughs and model innovations, achieving a dialectical unity of independent value release and in - depth industrial integration.
Liquid - cooling technology has become the "essential foundation" for high - density computing power, and its penetration rate is experiencing explosive growth. As the power density of AI clusters soars, traditional air - cooling has reached its physical limit. With a heat - dissipation efficiency 1000 times that of air - cooling and a PUE as low as 1.03, liquid cooling has changed from an "optional" to a "must - have" option. Data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology shows that the scale of China's liquid - cooling market is expected to reach 71.6 billion yuan in 2026, a year - on - year increase of over 70%. The liquid - cooling penetration rate will jump from 20% in 2025 to 37%, and the liquid - cooling penetration rate of AI training servers is as high as 74%. With strong policy support, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology requires that 70% of the "East - to - West Computing" hubs use liquid cooling, and liquid - cooling technology has become the "admission ticket" for the construction of intelligent computing centers.
The computing power leasing model has solved the "computing power gap" in the industry and become the core carrier of inclusive computing power. Building one's own computing power is extremely costly. The initial investment for a single 8 - card A100 server exceeds 1.8 million yuan, and high maintenance costs also need to be borne, which is unaffordable for small and medium - sized enterprises. Against this background, the computing power leasing market has boomed. IDC data shows that the scale of China's computing power leasing market is expected to reach 260 billion yuan in 2026, a year - on - year increase of over 60%, with a compound growth rate of about 53% from 2025 to 2027. Currently, more than 80% of small and medium - sized AI enterprises and 65% of medium - sized manufacturing enterprises choose computing power leasing. This model can save more than 90% of the self - building cost and turn computing power from a "luxury" into an "inclusive service".
Energy support has shifted from a "cost center" to a "value - creation center", consolidating the stable foundation of computing power. During the 15th Five - Year Plan, computing power centers will be deeply integrated with the new power grid. In 2026, the scale of the energy support market will exceed 120 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 28%. Through virtual power plant technology to "peak - shaving and valley - filling", it is estimated that more than 50 billion yuan in electricity costs will be saved for the computing power industry by 2027. At the same time, energy storage support is rapidly catching up. The investment in computing - power and electricity synergy support during the 15th Five - Year Plan will reach 2.25 trillion yuan, of which energy storage and power grid transformation account for 750 billion yuan, providing a solid guarantee for the stable operation of computing power.
From "Short - term Cycle" to "Long - term Ecosystem": A Re - construction of the Logic of Returns and Values
Investment in the computing power industry has moved beyond the single logic of "hardware cycle fluctuations" and entered a three - dimensional value stage of short - term hardware dividends, medium - term support sector explosion, and long - term ecosystem value - added. Balancing short - term returns and long - term values has become the core investment logic.
In the short term, there are still certain dividends in upstream core hardware. IDC data shows that the scale of China's intelligent computing power market is expected to reach 33.7 billion US dollars in 2026, a year - on - year increase of 30.1%. The market share of domestic AI accelerator cards has exceeded 41%, forming a closed - loop of self - controllability. The global GPU shipments are expected to reach 12.5 million units, and the hardware demand remains strong. However, risks of homogeneous competition and price wars need to be vigilant.
In the medium term, support sectors such as liquid cooling and computing power leasing are entering a golden growth period. From 2026 to 2028 is a critical period for the rapid increase in the penetration rate of support technologies. The liquid - cooling penetration rate will rise from 37% to over 50%, and the scale of the computing power leasing market will exceed 320 billion yuan. These sectors feature both "high growth rate + high certainty", and the competitive landscape is not yet solidified. Leading enterprises are expected to seize the market with technological and scale advantages and obtain a valuation premium higher than the industry average.
The long - term value lies in the synergistic value - added of the computing power ecosystem. The National Data Administration is promoting the construction of a national integrated computing power network monitoring and scheduling platform. It is estimated that by 2028, the cross - regional computing power scheduling efficiency will increase by 50%, and the utilization rate of computing power resources will increase from the current 45% to 70% (source: China Government Network). The improvement of ecological links such as computing - power and electricity synergy, computing power scheduling, and data circulation will unlock trillions of yuan in value - added space, driving the computing power industry to shift from "hardware competition" to "ecosystem win - win".
Under the wave of new infrastructure construction during the 15th Five - Year Plan, the computing power industry is undergoing a profound value reconstruction: The growth logic is accelerating from upstream core hardware to backend sectors such as liquid cooling, computing power leasing, and energy support; the development model is shifting from "scale expansion" to "green and efficient"; and value creation is moving from "single - point hardware" to "full - chain ecosystem".
In this transformation, there are no absolute "supporting roles" or "leading roles". The dialectical balance between scale and efficiency, independence and integration, and short - term and long - term is the key to seizing opportunities in the era of computing power. In the future, as the construction of the "Six Networks" continues to advance, the computing power support sectors will enter a golden period of value re - evaluation. Only by anchoring ecological synergy and adhering to technological innovation can one seize the initiative in the trillion - level new track and truly share the long - term growth dividends of the core productive forces of the digital economy.
——Some data and information are compiled from publicly released media reports
This article is from the WeChat official account "Kailian Wealth Club", and is published by 36Kr with authorization.