Zhongbei Communication focused on the development of intelligent computing business and signed a computing service contract of 730 million yuan

On April 9, Zhongbei Communication Group Co., Ltd. (stock abbreviation: Zhongbei Communication; stock code: 603220. SH) announced that it signed a "Computing Service Contract" with Jinan Supercomputing Center Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Jinan Supercomputing Center), with a contract amount of 730 million yuan and a service period of 60 months.

Previously, Zhongbei Communication said that the company has taken the intelligent computing business as the focus of business development at this stage. Zhongbei Communication plans to invest 5.5 billion yuan to build Zhongbei Communication East China Base in Shushan Economic Development Zone, Hefei, mainly including low-carbon AI computing power center and high-efficiency power and energy storage battery PACK project, and plans to invest no more than 3 billion yuan to build computing power clusters in Qinghai, Shanxi and other places.

Source: Photo.com

Zhongbei Communication signed a computing power service contract of 730 million yuan

According to the announcement, Zhongbei Communication and Jinan Supercomputing Center signed the "Computing Service Contract" and its annex "Computing Service List", Jinan Supercomputing Center purchased computing services from Zhongbei Communication Intelligent Computing Center, the contract amount is 729.6 million yuan (including tax), the service period is 60 months, calculated from the date of successful delivery, and the specific payment amount is subject to the actual number of servers run by the user.

Specifically, Zhongbei Communication provides related services to Jinan Supercomputing Center, including computing power services, shared basic Internet access services, and shared basic services. Zhongbei Communication shall deliver the above services to Jinan Supercomputing Center within 30 days from the effective date of the "Computing Service List" signed by both parties. In addition, the charging standards for upgrade services such as exclusive broadband, exclusive storage space, and exclusive access area storage space will be determined according to the final demand, and the specific amount will be subject to the actual rental settlement.

Focusing on 5G new infrastructure and smart cities, Zhongbei Communication's business covers most provinces in China, and is China Mobile Communications Corporation, China Telecom Corporation, China United Network Communications Group Co., Ltd. and China Tower Co., Ltd. (stock abbreviation: China Tower; stock code: 00788.HK). HK). At the same time, Zhongbei Communication is also actively deploying new energy business.

The 5G new infrastructure business of Zhongbei Communication is mainly to provide customers with network construction services including 5G mobile communication networks, optical transmission gigabit optical networks and other new digital infrastructure, including network planning and design, project implementation and delivery, system network maintenance, etc., Zhongbei Communication can provide customers with integrated services with the characteristics of full life cycle project management. In recent years, Zhongbei Communication is also actively exploring the computing power market and actively promoting the implementation of intelligent computing center projects in various places.

The smart city business of Zhongbei Communication is to provide customers with a package of solutions including scheme design, system platform development, installation and commissioning, etc., covering private communication networks, computer networks, video surveillance, smart communities, electromechanical and weak current systems, software system platforms and applications and other professional and technical fields. Among them, Zhongbei Communication focuses on providing services for customers and partners in the fields of intelligent transportation and smart energy.

In addition, Zhongbei Communication has established Zhongbei Wuhan New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. to carry out the investment, development, construction and operation of optical storage and charging projects, focusing on the development of energy storage systems. At the same time, Zhongbei Communication has invested in Guizhou Zhejiang Energy Storage Co., Ltd. and Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Co., Ltd. (stock abbreviation: JAC; stock code: 600418. SH), Anhui Ankai Automobile Co., Ltd. (stock abbreviation: Ankai Bus; stock code: 000868. SZ), Fodi Battery Co., Ltd. works closely together to invest in the construction of production lines for lithium-ion batteries and energy storage systems, carry out the research and development, production and sales of battery management systems and battery modules, and build new energy power batteries, energy storage system integration and technical service capabilities.

In the first three quarters of 2023, Zhongbei Communication achieved operating income of 1.99 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.76%, a net profit attributable to the parent company of 101 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 50.23%, and a net profit attributable to the parent company of 99 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 67.90%.

Intelligent computing business has become the focus of development

Zhongbei Communication said that the rapid development of AI technology has further requirements for artificial intelligence computing centers that provide platforms for model development and training. With the accelerated implementation of artificial intelligence technology, the demand for intelligent computing power is showing an explosive growth trend. The company is optimistic about the future development space of intelligent computing power, and has taken intelligent computing business as the focus of business development at this stage.

In July 2023, Zhongbei Communication said in its communication with investors that the company's intelligent computing business plans to invest about 1000-2000p per year, and the first phase will be invested according to the scale of 1000p.

In July 2023, Zhongbei Communications announced that it intends to cooperate with Hengwei Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (stock abbreviation: Hengwei Technology; stock code: 603496. SH) co-invested and introduced a third party to establish a joint venture. The registered capital of the joint venture company is 200 million yuan, controlled by Zhongbei Communication, and it is located in the Yangtze River Delta region of the national computing node city to invest in the construction of intelligent computing center, which is planned to provide no less than 500P computing power operation service capabilities.

In the same month, Zhongbei Communication acquired 70% of the shares of Anhui Rongboda Cloud Computing Data Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Anhui Rongboda) for 70.32 million yuan. In August 2023, Zhongbei Communication announced that it plans to invest in the construction of Zhongbei Communication Hefei Intelligent Computing Center Project (hereinafter referred to as Hefei Intelligent Computing Center) in Shushan District Economic Development Zone, Hefei City, Anhui Province, with a planned total investment of about 850 million yuan, including 743 million yuan for the purchase of servers and network supporting equipment, and 107 million yuan for other supporting investments. The project will be implemented using the computer room built by Anhui Rongboda, with a construction period of 12 months, of which the first phase of the construction period is 6 months.

Zhongbei Communication said that after the completion of the Hefei Intelligent Computing Center, it will be positioned to provide computing power leasing services, which can provide AI enterprises with services such as artificial intelligence model training and inference.

In October 2023, Zhongbei Communication announced that it had signed the "Investment Promotion Agreement for Zhongbei Communication East China Base Project" with the Management Committee of Hefei Shushan Economic Development Zone, and the company plans to build Zhongbei Communication East China Base in Hefei Shushan Economic Development Zone, mainly including low-carbon AI computing power center and high-efficiency power and energy storage battery PACK project, with a total project investment of about 5.5 billion yuan. After the project is completed and put into production, it is expected to achieve an annual operating income of nearly 10 billion yuan and an annual tax payment of nearly 400 million yuan. The total operating income of Zhongbei Communication in 2022 will be 2.643 billion yuan.

In February 2024, Zhongbei Communication issued the "Announcement on Investing in the Construction Project of the Intelligent Computing Center", stating that it plans to invest no more than 3 billion yuan to build the construction project of the intelligent computing center, and the project plans to build computing clusters in Qinghai, Shanxi and other places to provide customers with computing services, and the project construction period is 2 years.

In March 2024, Zhongbei Communication announced that it plans to sign the "Qinghai Sanjiangyuan National Green Intelligent Computing Computing Computing Power Scheduling Platform Project Cooperation Agreement" with the Management Committee of Xining (National Level) Economic and Technological Development Zone, and invest in the construction of the "Qinghai Sanjiangyuan National Green Intelligent Computing Computing Power Scheduling Platform Project", with a total project investment of about 1 billion yuan. This phase of the project will invest in the construction of a "10,000-card-level" large-scale computing power scheduling platform, and the computing power scale will reach 5000P FLOPS @FP16 after the completion of the project.

In terms of orders, in September 2023, Zhongbei Communication announced that the company signed a computing service framework agreement with Qinghai Branch of China United Network Communications Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as China Unicom Qinghai Branch), and the two parties intend to cooperate in AI computing service business. China Unicom Qinghai Branch purchases AI computing power services in bulk from Zhongbei Communications for its own use or to provide value-added computing power services to third parties. The total amount of service fee is 345.6 million yuan including tax, and the service period is 3 years.

Among them, China Unicom Qinghai Branch is responsible for providing storage equipment and basic network equipment required by the computing service platform, external network channels, computer room environment, cabinets, daily maintenance and customer introduction, Zhongbei Communication is responsible for providing H800 computing power server and the corresponding IB network switch and supporting optical modules, cables and management platforms, and is responsible for the maintenance of its equipment during the lease period.

In the same month, Zhongbei Communication and Jinan Supercomputing Center signed the "AI Computing Service Contract" and its annex "Computing Service List", Jinan Supercomputing Center purchased AI computing services from Zhongbei Communication Intelligent Computing Center, with a contract amount of 180 million yuan and a service period of 60 months.

IN OCTOBER 2023, BEILOOK COMMUNICATION INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD. (HEREINAFTER REFERRED TO AS "BEITONG INTERNATIONAL"), A HOLDING SUBSIDIARY OF ZHONGBEI COMMUNICATION, ENTERED INTO A PARTNERSHIP WITH WILDLOOK TECH PTE. LTD (hereinafter referred to as WILDLOOK) has signed a framework agreement for computing power services, and WILDLOOK purchases AI computing power services in bulk from Bei Communication International for its own use or to provide value-added computing services to third parties. The agreed lease term is 12 months, and the total amount of the lease fee is expected to be US$20 million, or approximately RMB146 million.