As global demand for AI computing power soars, China’s transformer industry is operating at full capacity, with orders flooding in from domestic and international data centers.

While AI infrastructure fuels a rapid increase in global computing capacity, the demand for a reliable and high-capacity electricity supply has grown increasingly critical. In China, transformers, long a cornerstone of traditional power grids, are now emerging as essential infrastructure for AI data centers.

Across major industrial regions such as Guangdong and Jiangsu, transformer manufacturing plants are ramping up production to meet skyrocketing demands. Many facilities have reported being fully booked, with some data center-related orders already scheduled into 2027.

In Foshan City, south China's Guangdong Province, one electrical equipment company is running at full speed, with warehouses and parking lots filled with transformers waiting for delivery.

"Less than a month into the year, our order volume has already increased by 70 to 80 percent compared to the same period last year. From day one, our production lines have been running at full capacity," said Wang Lixin, head of the company's research and development center.

Worldwide competition for transformers is intensifying. In the United States, soaring demands have pushed delivery timelines from 50 weeks to 127 weeks. Meanwhile, Chinese suppliers are emerging as a faster alternative.

At another Foshan-based transformer company, dry-type transformers, primarily used in data centers, are seeing a spike in global interest.

"Compared to delivery timelines in Europe and the U.S., we can deliver in less than one-fifth of the time. Our current order volume is solid, and we aim to raise overseas revenue to 50 percent or higher of our total sales," said Li Xia, marketing director at the firm.

The trend extends to the Yangtze River Delta. At a plant in east China's Jiangsu Province, product orders have been scheduled through the end of 2027, including the recent shipment of China's first fully insulated, ultra-high-voltage, large-capacity transformer to the North American market.

"We're running three shifts around the clock. Our custom-made transformers have a delivery cycle of just three to six months, far faster than the 18-month average in other countries. Even so, we still have a long queue of pending orders," said Mei Yong, head of production at the Jiangsu facility.

According to industry data, China now hosts around 3,000 transformer manufacturers. In 2025, transformer exports hit 64.6 billion yuan (9.29 billion U.S. dollars), a nearly 36 percent increase from 2024.

"China has become the world's largest transformer manufacturer. We've established the most complete production system globally, with an independent and fully controllable industrial chain. Our capacity accounts for around 60 percent of the global total," said Cai Yiqing, secretary general of the Power Equipment Branch of the China Electricity Council.