Mongolia’s AI Data Center Ambition Needs More Than Cold Air and Cheap Power

Mongolia has found two commodities it thinks can be exported without digging them out of the ground, cold air and electricity.

The government wants to turn them into a data-center industry, betting that sub-zero winters can cut cooling costs while abundant solar and wind power can feed the artificial-intelligence boom.

Visual by AI

It is an attractive proposition for a country dependent on exporting copper and coal. But the comparison with Inner Mongolia, which has become one of China’s leading computing hubs, reveals what Mongolia is missing.

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