China AI starts doing the math on compute: data centers, price cuts and Alibaba's capex

An opinion analysis argues China's AI competition is shifting from acquiring compute to operating it as a capital-intensive business. It cites FT reporting on 89 contracted data center projects in Ulanqab, DeepSeek's permanent 75% API price cut for V4-Pro announced in May, a Silicon Data index showing token prices down over 52% from May highs, and Alibaba's quarterly results of RMB 67.678 billion capex up 75% year over year alongside RMB 48.437 billion AI cloud and compute revenue up 45%. The piece notes model prices can adjust in months while data center investments take years to recoup.