China Telecom data centers: 17 sites mapped

China Telecom is one of the three state-owned carriers Beijing is putting at the center of its AI infrastructure buildout, which Capacity reported in 2026 as a roughly 2 trillion yuan ($295 billion), five-year plan for a national network of AI data centers, supplied at least 80 percent by domestic firms such as Huawei. China Telecom is already running that kind of facility: in April 2026 it and Alibaba launched a data center in Shaoguan, Guangdong, which China Telecom owns and operates, using 10,000 of Alibaba's Zhenwu AI chips with plans to grow to 100,000.

The company also has computing clusters in an underwater data center off Shanghai's Lingang zone, a modular facility 10 meters below the sea and connected to the Lingang offshore wind farm. Its developers say seawater cooling eliminates freshwater use and cuts power use by 22.8 percent; the first phase is 2.3 megawatts, with a second phase planned at 24 megawatts. A GlobalData analyst, Martina Raveni, told RCR Wireless that repairs mean hauling whole modules out of the sea, and that the ecological effect of ocean-based systems, including possible chemical contamination, is still being evaluated.

Outside China, the company's footprint is a national security question. The US Federal Communications Commission revoked China Telecom Americas' authority to provide telecom services between 2019 and 2022. A bipartisan House committee investigation reported in August 2026 that the order never required the carrier to remove equipment or leave its US data center space, and found China Telecom Americas still had 10 active points of presence across seven US metropolitan areas, with connection requests handled by staff in Shanghai, Hong Kong or Beijing. China's embassy said Beijing "firmly opposes the U.S. overstretching the concept of national security and going after Chinese companies."

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.