[SMM Computing Power Midday Review] H100: Western Region Rushes to Buy amid Continuous Price Rise, Trailing the Yangtze River Delta, with the Highest Price Approaching the 80,000 Mark

[Market Overview] This morning, H100 prices in western China continued to rise, catching up with the H100 rally in the Yangtze River Delta. For the SMM-H100-80G server (western China, monthly), the highest monthly rent rose to 79,000 yuan, equivalent to a peak card-hour rate of 13.72 yuan, further narrowing the gap with the 81,000 yuan high in the Yangtze River Delta. Demand for high-end computing power continued to heat up, and the wave of data center construction in western China was lifting the regional rental price center overall.

[H100 in Western China: Clear Rush-Buying Trend, Card-Hour Approaches 13.72] For the SMM-H100-80G server (western China, monthly), the highest monthly rent rose from 76,000 yuan to 79,000 yuan, an increase of 3,000 yuan, or 3.95%; the highest card-hour rate rose from 13.19 yuan to 13.72 yuan, an increase of 0.53 yuan, or 4.02%. Previously, western China's H100 had long maintained a price spread of 2,000-3,000 yuan compared with the Yangtze River Delta; this round of increases compressed the gap to 2,000 yuan. The price rise in western China was not a passive follow— massive new data center investments poured in, and room expansion spurred local GPU procurement and leasing demand. Although there was growth on the supply side, the demand side’s rush to lock in resources was even more aggressive.

[SMM View] The sustained climb in high-end computing power demand was driven by three forces. First, Nvidia’s advanced equipment exited the Chinese mainland, leaving a huge market gap. Domestic super-node and GPU equipment still needed time to achieve economies of scale and stable supply, and during this transitional period, the premium on existing Nvidia equipment intensified.

Second, GPU equipment has a long physical life; coupled with high-level operation and maintenance, failure rates were controllable. Moreover, the mature GPU repair industry chain in Shenzhen allowed existing computing cards to maintain computing capability through refurbishment and repair, continuing to circulate in the high-end demand market and delaying the pace of natural elimination.

Third, the intensive construction of many new data centers in western China directly pushed up regional GPU rental prices with the influx of capital. The rise of western China's H100 to 79,000 yuan in this round was a direct reflection of this trend. With these three logics combined, high-end computing power prices were unlikely to cool down in the short term.