DeepSeek targets 1GW AI buildout in Inner Mongolia by 2028

DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company that rattled global tech markets earlier this year, is now planning to build a 1 gigawatt AI data center in Inner Mongolia. Some capacity is expected to come online by early 2028. To put 1GW in perspective, that’s roughly the output of a nuclear power plant. It’s also more power than many mid-sized cities consume. What’s actually happening on the ground DeepSeek has started hiring server maintenance engineers and delivery managers in Ulanqab, a city in Inner Mongolia that’s quietly becoming one of China’s preferred data center corridors. The job postings, noted around April 2026, suggest the company is well past the planning phase and actively preparing for physical deployment. This isn’t DeepSeek’s first footprint in the region. The company reportedly completed deployments of its models in Hohhot’s New District, also in Inner Mongolia, back in February 2025. So the buildout in Ulanqab represents an expansion of an existing regional strategy, not a cold start. The company, headquartered in Hangzhou, is simultaneously developing its V4 AI model. The new data center is expected to provide the compute backbone for training and running that model at sca...