Sarah Wang

Sarah Wang from UBS asked if Hyperscale customers' priority on time to market has changed, and how the increasing inference demand will impact new order considerations, particularly regarding user latency and geographical location.

Answer

CFO Qiyu Wang (and Ju Ma in the Chinese response) confirmed that inference is becoming a major growth driver, leading to higher customer requirements for lower latency and increased demand in regions like the Greater Beijing Area (Hebei, Ulanqab). He also stated that customer demand for fast delivery (T+6, sometimes T+3) remains high. VNET meets this through early planning for civil engineering and external power, supply chain integration, and standardized construction with modularization.

Sarah Wang asked if hyperscale customers' priority on time-to-market for AI data centers has changed, what key factors drive new order releases, and how the anticipated strong growth in inference demand next year might impact customer considerations regarding latency and geographical location.

Answer

Rotating President Ju Ma (translated by CFO Qiyu Wang) confirmed that inference demand is becoming a major growth driver, increasing customer requirements for lower latency and favoring VNET's Greater Beijing Area campuses. He noted that customer demand for fast delivery (T+6, sometimes T+3) remains high, which VNET meets through early planning of civil engineering and external power, supply chain consolidation, and modular construction.

Sarah Wang of UBS asked if potential new customer tenders are expected to come from similar customers and involve similar workloads, or if any changes are anticipated.

Answer

VNet Management stated that they expect clients to release their demand gradually and that, from a business perspective, the nature of the demand and workloads is expected to remain unchanged.

Sarah Wang inquired if next year's higher booking expectations include newly acquired powered land in regions with relatively lower power tariffs and about potential difficulties in acquiring new power quotas given recent government rationalization.

Answer

William Huang (Founder, Chairman and CEO) clarified that new bookings are not fully reliant on new land acquisition but could increase with successful land acquisition. Regarding power quotas, he stated that GDS's track record and government relationships make it less challenging, especially in remote areas where local governments encourage data center development.

Sarah Wang inquired if GDS's higher booking expectations for next year include new powered land acquired in regions with relatively lower power tariffs. She also asked about potential difficulties in acquiring new power quotas, considering NDRC's rationalization efforts in China.

Answer

William Huang, GDS Founder, Chairman, and CEO, clarified that while new bookings are not solely reliant on new land acquisition, successful land acquisition would enable further growth. Regarding power quotas, William Huang noted that while generally challenging, GDS's track record and government relationships mitigate difficulties, especially in remote areas where power is abundant and local governments encourage data center development.