DeepSeek is reportedly planning a major data center for artificial intelligence in Ulanqab, in China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region.
According to Bloomberg reporting republished by The Japan Times, the Chinese company aims to add roughly one gigawatt of capacity. The project would combine a company-owned facility with capacity leased from other operators. Its first section could come online by late 2027 or early 2028.
The proposed scale is enormous: one gigawatt is comparable to the output of a large power station. The figure needs context, however. It is not a direct measure of AI computing performance, nor does it necessarily mean that the campus will continuously draw one gigawatt. It may refer to the total electrical capacity planned once the project is fully developed.
Why Ulanqab
Ulanqab lies around 350 kilometers northwest of Beijing and is already a major Chinese data-center hub. The area offers a cool average climate, access to power and a favorable position within China's national strategy of moving some computing workloads away from the densely populated east and into western regions.
The location should not be confused with the independent country of Mongolia. The reported project is in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China.
The job postings that foreshadowed the project
DeepSeek has not publicly announced the campus. Its recruiting activity, however, supports reports that the company is building a direct operational presence in Ulanqab.
On April 2, 2026, DeepSeek posted its first two vacancies based in the city: Data Center Senior Delivery Manager and Data Center Senior Operations Engineer. IT Home reported the listings on April 15 and said both offered a monthly salary of between 15,000 and 30,000 yuan, paid across 14 salary periods.
The first role covers the full project lifecycle, from planning and construction through delivery and operations. The second focuses on servers, network equipment, monitoring, hardware optimization, incident response and service continuity. Together, they point to hands-on infrastructure management rather than a strategy based only on purchasing capacity from outside providers.
The job listings
Responsibilities and requirements
The extended screenshot provides more detail on the two roles. Alongside project and operations management, DeepSeek mentions building IDC automation tools, meeting service-level agreements, protecting data and improving energy efficiency.
A move toward greater infrastructure control
If confirmed, the campus would mark an important step for DeepSeek. Building and operating at least part of its own infrastructure would give the company more control over compute availability, day-to-day operations and the efficiency of the systems used to train and run its models.
Major questions remain, including the cost of the project, its chip suppliers, how much of the campus DeepSeek will build itself and how the reported gigawatt will be phased in. Without an official company announcement, the scale and timeline should be treated as reported plans rather than firm commitments.