Alibaba Cloud to double global modular data center capacity in 2026

Alibaba Cloud plans to more than double its global production capacity for modular data centers this year, as surging demand for artificial intelligence computing amps up construction of data center infrastructure.

The cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group said on Monday that its self-developed fully modular data center architecture has cut the delivery time for large-scale AI data centers to 100 days, faster than traditional construction cycles of six to 12 months in China and 12 to 18 months in the United States.

The move highlights a broader shift in the data center industry, where the rapid expansion of AI models and applications is driving demand for computing capacity while making speed, flexibility and energy efficiency increasingly critical.

Traditional data center construction typically follows a sequential process, with each stage dependent on the completion of the previous one. Power systems, for example, must usually be installed before cooling equipment can be deployed.

The company's latest architecture, known as CUBE 5.0, was designed specifically for AI data centers, increasing the modularization rate of power supply, cooling, security, intelligent management and fire protection from around 30 percent in earlier generations to 90 percent, according to Alibaba Cloud.

The architecture also incorporates high-voltage direct current power systems, hybrid air and liquid cooling technologies, and flexible designs that allow compatibility with mainstream heterogeneous chips and computing architectures. It can support at least three generations of chip upgrades, the company said.

The architecture supports flexible switching between air cooling and liquid cooling, achieving a power usage effectiveness level of 1.15 or lower for air-cooled systems and 1.10 or lower for liquid-cooled systems, according to the company.