DeepSeek is reportedly building a gigawatt-scale AI data center in Inner Mongolia

DeepSeek is reportedly building an AI data center in Ulanqab, in China’s Inner Mongolia region, about 350 kilometers northwest of Beijing, in a project aimed at adding roughly one gigawatt of compute capacity.

A gigawatt of power is a scale reached only by the largest AI data centers, enough to rival the flagship campuses being built by leading US labs. DeepSeek plans to construct its own facility while also leasing additional capacity from other operators, people familiar with the plans say.

The expansion is tied to DeepSeek’s effort to keep pace with leading US AI models and comes as the Chinese company prepares for a possible initial public offering. That groundwork reportedly follows a $7 billion financing round that valued DeepSeek at roughly $50 billion.

DeepSeek has not confirmed the data center publicly and is unlikely to, given how rarely it comments on its infrastructure. Key details, including the project’s cost, construction timeline and chip supply, could not be established – an open question that carries weight given US export controls on the advanced chips used to train frontier models.

For a company that built its reputation on training competitive models cheaply, a gigawatt-scale buildout would mark a shift toward the capital-heavy scaling its US rivals have pursued.