China opens its 2026 national green computing facilities list: data-centre operators’ submissions are due by 16 November

China opens its 2026 national green computing facilities list: data-centre operators’ submissions are due by 16 November

2 October 2026 — China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), with four other departments, has opened the 2026 round for recommending National Green Computing Facilities. The notice, reference 工信厅联节函〔2026〕433号, is dated 8 September and was posted on 21 September 2026. Recommendations are due by 16 November 2026.

Not yet independently verified. This rests on MIIT’s own notice, read in Chinese; no independent report was checked. The notice was posted on 21 September; we report it now because the deadline is still six weeks away. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

Who qualifies

The list covers artificial-intelligence, general-purpose and supercomputing facilities. According to the notice, a facility must:

• have been in stable operation for at least one year;
• have at least 3,000 standard racks, with exceptions for facilities run by public bodies, the financial sector and AI computing;
• run at rack utilisation of at least 60%;
• meet grade 2 or better under the national energy-efficiency standard for data centres (GB 40879) and grade 2 or better under GB/T 44989.

Provincial industry authorities and the large state telecom groups gather and submit recommendations, on paper and through the green.miit.gov.cn platform. Facilities on the list are checked each year and can be removed.

Why it matters outside China

The list is part of China's push to make its rapid build-out of AI computing more energy-efficient. Being on it is a signal of quality that operators use in selling capacity and in seeking local support. For foreign companies buying cloud or colocation in China, it is one more way to compare providers on energy and utilisation, alongside PUE claims that are otherwise hard to check.

What to do

• Data-centre operators in China that meet the thresholds should contact their provincial industry authority, or their parent telecom group, well before 16 November, because those bodies set their own internal deadlines.
• Cooling, power and monitoring vendors selling into Chinese data centres can use the thresholds to frame upgrade proposals.
• Companies choosing Chinese capacity providers can ask whether a facility is on the national list and what energy grade it holds.

Sources

• MIIT: notice on recommending 2026 national green computing facilities (工信厅联节函〔2026〕433号) — 21 September 2026