Wind turbine blades turn slowly in the vast wilderness, while vast solar panel arrays spread out like a blue ocean under the sun. Silver-white transmission lines cross Inner Mongolia’s expansive landscape, sending clean electricity to rows of data centers. There, green power drives the powerful computing for an artificial intelligence world.

This deep fusion of green electricity and computing power enables a value leap from watts to bits, bringing green computing to the heart of grasslands, rural fields, and city streets. It opens new doors for AI to empower Inner Mongolia’s distinctive industries and public services.

One-Click for Hay Across a Thousand Miles: Green Computing Reshapes Grassland Industry Models

On the Xilingol Steppe, traditional herding practices are quietly evolving. Through the "AI Shepherd Dog" system, a pilot project from Inner Mongolia Qilue Information Technology Co., Ltd. in collaboration with local herders, livestock owners no longer need to patrol on horseback. They can check flock locations, pasture conditions, and receive animal health analysis via their phones. Herder Ayunga says, "I feel more at ease herding now, and I have time to entertain tourists."

In April this year, a hay transaction on the Xilingol Steppe went viral online. Mr. Bai, a ranch owner from Lhasa, Tibet, placed an order on the "Cao Yida" e-commerce platform. Within a week, high-quality hay from Ao Ritegen’s family in Xilingol traveled over a thousand miles to Lhasa. Previously, Mr. Bai had to travel to the grassland in person, relying on sight, touch, and taste to inspect hay, leading to frequent quality disputes and high costs.

The "Cao Yida" platform, China’s first vertical large model for the hay industry, launched in February in the Horinger New Area. The system uses AI visual recognition technology to perform millisecond-level automatic analysis of key hay quality indicators. More importantly, it creates a closed-loop business model of "testing, trading, and financing," effectively reducing costs for ranches and increasing income for hay farmers. "We leverage the green computing infrastructure of the Horinger New Area to transform traditional 'sensory grading' into 'data grading,'" says Sun Lei, General Manager of Cao Yida (Inner Mongolia) Big Data Technology Co., Ltd.

With a narrow focus and precision empowerment, industry-specific vertical large models are reshaping the paradigm for grassland specialties. The strong support behind this comes from Inner Mongolia’s green power advantage, derived from its abundant solar and wind resources, and the virtuous cycle of computing and electricity coordination. Data shows that in 2025, Inner Mongolia’s total installed new energy capacity will exceed 170 million kilowatts, with new energy generation reaching 270 billion kilowatt-hours, both ranking among the top in the country.

Abundant green electricity provides stable energy for computing power, while intelligent computing power in turn optimizes the scheduling of the power grid, achieving a mutually reinforcing cycle of "strengthening computing with electricity and promoting electricity with computing." In the Horinger New Area, the nation’s first batch of demonstration projects for "computing-electricity coordination" are operating efficiently. The proportion of green electricity used by local data centers reaches 86%, and the green computing index leads the country.

Green electricity transforms into green computing, and green computing transforms into tokens (Token), permeating Inner Mongolia’s advantageous industries through an "AI+" approach. In Baotou, smart mining and network-coordinated manufacturing are accelerating. In Ordos, energy digitization and industrial internet are deeply integrated. Three national advanced manufacturing clusters—dairy products, rare earth new materials, and modern coal chemical—are leveraging AI computing power to achieve full-chain intelligence from R&D and design to production and manufacturing.

Zhang Lei, head of the Digital Economy Development Division at the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Government Affairs Service and Data Management Bureau, states that Inner Mongolia’s traditional advantageous industries, such as coal chemicals, crystalline silicon photovoltaics, dairy, and hay, have a strong foundation for AI application scenarios. The return on investment for digital and intelligent transformation is high, and with green computing empowerment, the advantage in economic transformation is clear. Looking ahead, "Green Power + AI" will inject a surging, endless momentum into the high-quality development of the grassland economy.

Physical Workers Become ‘Digital Shareholders’: AI Dividends Bring Stability to People’s Lives

The dual engine of "Green Power + Computing Power" is not only written into the blueprint of Inner Mongolia’s full-sprint to build a modern industrial system but also manifested in the real-world scenes of improving people’s welfare and public services through AI.

Those on the front lines of the industrial chain feel this directly. At "Cao Yida," farmers and herders have a new income channel. By leveraging their experience in planting and hay inspection to participate in data annotation tasks, they can earn thousands of yuan each month. They are no longer just manual laborers; they are "digital shareholders" of the platform, sharing in the dividends of the AI era.

Ubiquitous smart scenarios also tell the story of a people's transformation driven by AI. At the Inner Mongolia Normal University Affiliated Yungu School in the Horinger New Area, smart blackboards run in sync with teachers’ terminals and students’ tablets. During class, a teacher can simply wake the smart blackboard with a soft voice command to access extended knowledge and supplementary materials beyond the textbook.

In the emergency room of Guyang County People’s Hospital in Baotou, the attending physician entered the symptoms of a 45-year-old patient—"left chest pain, cold sweat"—and the AI immediately issued an alert: "Acute myocardial infarction probability 78%." The entire process, from ECG to thrombolytic therapy, was compressed to just 26 minutes.

At the Honglin Community Elderly Care Station in Lincheng Street, Linxi County, Chifeng City, an AI cooking robot automates the entire process from ingredient feeding to cooking and plating. Paired with a scientific meal planning system, it customizes nutritious meals for elderly individuals with different health needs. Digital teaching, smart healthcare, and intelligent elderly care... green computing serves as the "digital foundation" for safeguarding and improving people’s livelihoods, bringing tangible stability to their lives.

At the same time, digital intelligence is making cities run more "smartly." From smart parking and precise traffic scheduling to tracing objects thrown from heights and monitoring fire access, from intelligent pest monitoring to garden fire hazard warnings, more and more "city brain" smart projects are being implemented. This helps Inner Mongolia create a safe, efficient, and livable environment, comprehensively improving the level of modern urban governance.

Industries move forward, and people’s well-being warms. In the "Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Action Plan for AI+ (2026-2028)," AI+ industrial development, AI+ people’s welfare, and AI+ governance capabilities are all listed as key tasks. As Inner Mongolia accelerates its use of a green foundation to support an intelligent core, more new scenarios are expected to emerge, and more new stories are waiting to be told.