On June 6th, in Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province, a Tibetan girl，Ban Macuo was facing a computer screen and skillfully framing the footage of Qinghai Lake captured by a drone. She works diligently and meticulously, and the data annotated by her would serve as key information for artificial intelligence algorithms and model calculations.

In this snowy plateau, different from the woven Tibetan carpets that Tibetan people used to enjoy, today, in the data annotation industrial park driven by 94% clean energy, Nearly a thousand "digital embroiderers" from the plateau are carefully "weaving" a new picture of the development of Qinghai's computing and Power Collaborative industry with their mice.

On March 7, 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized during deliberations with the Qinghai delegation at the fourth session of the 13th National People's Congress that "each region should adapt to its actual situation, make good use of its strengths and weaknesses, and embark on a path of high-quality development that is suitable for its local conditions".

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has inspected Qinghai three times, issuing important instructions to "protect Qinghai's ecological environment as a matter critical to the nation's well-being" and to "develop Qinghai into a national hub for new energy industries". He further outlined the major requirement for Qinghai to "build itself into a leading center for the country’s clean energy industry".

Today, with rapid advances in science and technology, Qinghai Province is witnessing a surge in computing power innovation. The province is establishing a synergistic "clean energy + green computing" development model, efficiently converting green power into computing resources. It is mobilizing full provincial efforts to create a green computing industrial base rooted in western China and serving the entire nation.

After a decade of dedicated efforts, Qinghai Province has established green development as its primary focus. The province has achieved a total installed power capacity exceeding 71 million kilowatts, with clean energy and new energy sources accounting for 94% and 71% of the total capacity respectively. Qinghai has become the first region in China where new energy constitutes the dominant share in both installed capacity and power generation output, forming a comprehensive energy matrix of "hydropower + photovoltaic + wind power + energy storage". Qinghai Province has become a super ' storage battery' for the national 'dual carbon' strategy.

Facing a new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation, Qinghai Province focuses on clean energy as its main industry, firmly grasping the "blood" of computing power and digital economy, the "chips" of technological sovereignty, the "leverage" of industrial upgrading, and the "pivot" of green transformation. It is brave to leverage the national "dual carbon" strategy and major development opportunities of the "East Digital, West Computing" project, lighting up a new highway for green Computing and Power Collaboration, and forging a high-quality development path suited to local conditions.

All of this is changing the trajectory of industrial development in Qinghai Province and also changing the fate of Qinghai people

Banma Cuo, who came from Tianjun County of Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, works at Qinghai Blue Computing Technology Co., Ltd. His job is to annotate the mountains, rivers, and water of Qinghai. “I have been grazing on grasslands with my family since I was young, running freely on the vast grasslands of the plateau, and now teaching AI to recognize mountains, lakes, yaks, snow leopards... Through computing power to introduce Qinghai to people around the world. ” The girl who just graduated from college said with a smile.

Sang Taiben, a Tibetan young man who just started working this year, is from Gonghe County of Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. In his eyes, Tara Beach is undergoing a huge transformation - desert turning into blue ocean, light energy turning into electricity. “In the past, every time when I went to Taratan and saw the endless array of photovoltaic panels in front of me like thousands of sails competing, I couldn't help but secretly make up my mind to devote myself to the clean energy industry and contribute to the green development of my hometown. I never expected that my dream would come true. Today, the data annotation industry I am engaged in is driven by the clean energy produced by Taratan.” Sang Taiben said emotionally.

On November 18, 2024, on the basis of relevant policies and priority guarantee of industry funds, Qinghai Blue Computing Vocational Skills Training School obtained enrollment qualifications and established the professional discipline of "Artificial Intelligence Trainer", thus becoming the first alliance institution of "Qinghai Province's Green Computing Industry Education Integration Talent Training Community".

Call on fellow villagers, return to hometown, and build hometown. It is the Computing and Power Collaboration that enables young people in Qinghai to participate in the world's most cutting-edge technology, and connects this inland plateau province with the world's computing power, and also empowers the clean energy of the plateau to contribute to the digital development of our country.

General Secretary Xi Jinping is always paying attention to the clean energy industry of Qinghai Province. In 2016, during his inspection visit to Qinghai, he made a special trip to the Xining branch of State Power Investment Yellow River Company, and after listening to the introduction, gave important instructions on the development of clean energy in Qinghai Province.

Just last year, General Secretary Xi Jinping explicitly stated in his congratulatory speech for the opening video of the 2024 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit that; We should grasp the trend of digitalization, networking, and intelligence development, take innovation as the first driving force, security as the bottom line requirement, and inclusiveness as the value pursuit, accelerate the development of innovation, security, and inclusiveness in cyberspace, and work together to move towards a better "digital future".

Today, General Secretary Xi Jinping's sincere instructions concerning Qinghai's clean energy development and digital industry development remain fresh in our memory.

With the development of the clean energy industry, many modern green factories have emerged. At the same time, high-altitude computing power is also flourishing. Li Gang, Chairman of Qinghai Blue Computing Technology Co., Ltd., introduced, "Thanks to the advantage of green electricity accounting for over 94% in Qinghai Province, various preferential policies for the development of the Computing and Power Collaborative industry have attracted a large number of enterprises to settle in Qinghai. Currently, the daily processing of annotated data in the park exceeds 50TB"

From a shepherd girl to an AI annotator, from an energy industry "seeker of light" to an AI trainer. With the changes in Qinghai's industrial development and the leap in employment trends. All kinds of things may seems unexpected, but they are all actually intentional arrangements. Therefore, it will come naturally.

The leader of Qinghai Provincial Data Bureau have calculated the pros and cons of industrial development and transformation in Qinghai Province. It is precisely because of Qinghai's advantages in clean energy that they have taken the lead in issuing five local standards for green computing power, including the "Green Computing Power Infrastructure Level Evaluation Specification", and have built the country's first 100% clean energy traceable green big data center, as well as the country's first shared energy storage market-oriented trading platform. Calculations show that in Qinghai, the layout and construction of a computing power center with a PUE below 1.2 reduces investment costs by 20% and operating costs by 30% compared to other regions in China, the investment return cycle is shortened to 2 years.

The one side , there is Qinghai Province's digital computing power and AI intelligent full speed operation; and the other hand, there is the full speed operation of wind turbines, photovoltaic panels, and water turbines located 100 kilometers away from Xining, which complement each other and develop simultaneously. Li Gang introduced that:; We have undertaken data annotation services for more than ten companies, and each task of clean energy annotation is to contribute to carbon reduction.

With the rapid agglomeration of the data annotation industry in Qinghai Province, it is triggering a chain reaction. Nan Haiyan, member of the Standing Committee of the Xining Municipal Party Committee and Deputy Mayor, told reporters that currently, Xining City is focusing on accelerating investment in key links of the computing power labeling industry chain, and forming a "labeling and training and application" loop as expected.

A deeper transformation is taking place in the energy industry of Qinghai Province.

On June 6th, at the Qinghai Province Clean Energy and Green Computing Power Dispatch Center, many engineers were using computing power to test the electricity consumption of enterprises stationed in the Nanchuan Industrial Park of Xining City (national level) Economic and Technological Development Zone, providing the best energy utilization plan to help enterprises operate in a low-carbon manner.

At Qinghai Green Energy Data Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Qinghai Electric Power Company on the national network, Niu Xueying, the full-time person in charge of the "dual carbon" business, said, "Based on the characteristics of different types of enterprises, we have used computing power to construct 36 indicator evaluation models, including energy consumption equipment efficiency and clean energy consumption, to achieve accurate prediction of multi-dimensional energy consumption in the whole province. "

Today, Qinghai has achieved a comprehensive reshaping of the plateau economy through an intangible "computing power Silk Road". In the clean energy sector of Qinghai Province, the rapidly developing industry matrix relies on computing power.

Indeed, the green industry in Qinghai Province and its vision for the future economy are becoming a reality. Leaders from the Development and Reform Commission of Qinghai Province have introduced that during the 15th Five Year Plan period, Qinghai Province will continue to plan for the development of the computer and electronics collaborative industry. In the future, more and more native born Qinghai people will join green computing enterprises, completely subverting the traditional narrative of "Qinghai people going out to seek gold".

As night falls, the lights in the office marked by Blue Calculation are as bright as starlight. Bamacuo completed the last annotation of the day. Outside the window, the Huangshui River flows endlessly, and the flowing river on this ancient tea-horse road now reflects the green starlight of the digital age.

Qinghai, once defined as" in that distant place ", has now become the best choice for delineating" China's green computing "based on the computing and power collaborative industry.  

                                                                                (Text by Mijiao, translated by Rencai)