Computing power is gradually evolving into assets in China's financial and capital markets, as the country explores an innovative resource-sharing model to make it more accessible and as data center operators launch infrastructure investment trusts products to better meet growing computing demand.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology proposed in May to explore innovative services such as "computing power banks," where businesses can deposit idle computing capacity and withdraw or borrow it, so as to leverage computing resources and ensure more flexible and inclusive access to them.
As the new model turns computing power into financial savings, the increasing computing demand, combined with the asset-heavy and long-cycle characteristics of computing infrastructure and its ability to generate stable cash flow, has driven the emergence of computing infrastructure investment trusts products.
Domestic data center operators, including Range Technology and GDS Holdings, have launched related real estate investment trusts (REITs) products for public trading, while VNET have launched REITs products for inter-institutional trading.
"With such a financial channel, the capital turnover rate of computing power companies will be greatly improved. Through financing, companies can free up capital to build another computing center, to some extent accelerating the pace of construction," said Zhu Min, head of the Digital Intelligence Consulting Institute at Huaxin Consulting, Design, and Research Institute.
Industry experts believe that as financial tools like computing power banks and infrastructure REITs mature, they will boost the development of the entire industrial chain.
For upstream hardware providers, long-term stable capital expectations will continue to drive demand for chips, servers, and optical modules; for computing power businesses, REITs and futures tools can both revitalize heavy assets and hedge against price volatility risks; and for downstream AI companies, stable long-term computing costs will eliminate worries about cost fluctuations, greatly accelerating AI innovation and application, according to Yuan Qiang, an equity strategy advisor in the asset allocation department at Guotai Haitong Securities.
Computing power evolves into assets in China's financial, capital markets
A Greek scholar has shed light on the multi-layered value of classical studies, asserting that modern civilizations can deepen their understandings of themselves, each other, and the challenges they face through the lens of ancient wisdom.
On the sidelines of the just-concluded World Conference of Classics held in Athens, Greece, Professor Myrto Garani of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens said that Greek and Chinese intellectual traditions, despite giving different answers to life's fundamental questions, offer complementary paths to wisdom that remain urgently relevant today.
"The two civilizations clearly faced many of the same fundamental questions. That is what interests us, and that is why it is so valuable to gather here in Athens and discuss the concerns shared by both peoples since antiquity. We may have arrived at different answers. However, by examining the different ways in which we approached these questions, we can also reconsider the answers that our own civilization produced. In doing so, we gain a deeper understanding of one another. That is the real value of this dialogue and the reason we continue to explore these questions in greater depth," said Garani.
The professor said that she urges young people who view the classics as outdated or irrelevant to consider that ancient wisdom equips modern minds with essential tools for navigating today's crises.
"Classical studies will obviously not provide direct answers to the climate crisis or the energy crisis, for example. But they can help us cultivate our thinking and our judgment. The way people confronted fundamental questions in the past can help us respond to the challenges of the present. I believe this is one of the greatest things we can gain from classical studies. They encourage comprehensive thinking and critical judgment. They also allow us to examine the values of antiquity and understand how those values can be adapted and applied today," said Garani.
Held from June 9 to 10 under the theme "Dialogue Between Ancient and Modern Civilizations: Contemporary Inspiration from Classical Wisdom," the Second World Conference of Classics brought together more than 200 scholars, researchers and cultural representatives from Asia, Europe, Africa and North America.
This year's gathering highlighted the contemporary relevance of classical civilizations, exploring how ideas drawn from ancient traditions can offer insights into governance, ethics, social development and international relations amid evolving global challenges.
Greek scholar hails classical studies as East-West bridge
