At a transformer factory in Nanchang, east China's Jiangxi Province, production lines are running at full capacity.

In 2026, the company's orders on hand have reached nearly 700 million yuan (about $96 million), with exports accounting for more than 90%. In another factory in central China’s Henan Province, orders have jumped 60% year-on-year, with production already scheduled through June and shipments heading to markets from Russia to Mexico.

These are not isolated cases.

Across China's manufacturing hubs, producers of power equipment from transformers to adapters and connectors are seeing a sharp rise in overseas demand, driven in part by the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence.

The rapid growth of data centers, AI computing and consumer electronics is creating new demand for reliable, standardized power interfaces.

Adapters and related components, though often overlooked, are the key to enabling systems built under different standards to connect and operate.

Orders are flowing to China

China's transformer industry includes around 3,000 companies. In 2025, total transformer exports reached 64.6 billion yuan, up nearly 36% year-on-year, making China the world's largest producer.

China has also built the world's most complete transformer manufacturing system, with production capacity accounting for about 60% of the global total, according to Cai Yiqing, the secretary general of the power equipment branch of the China Electricity Council.

The surge in demand is also linked to the rapid expansion of China's AI sector.

Chinese-developed artificial intelligence (AI) models have recently surpassed their US counterparts in global token usage for the first time, according to data released by AI aggregation platform OpenRouter. "That's a development closely tied to advances in computing power, technology and business models," said Ding Zhaohao, a professor at North China Electric Power University.

"These innovations, combined with China's advantages in energy and power systems, will help translate those strengths into more concrete advantages for the AI industry, particularly by supporting sustainable and green development with clean electricity," Ding said in an interview with China Media Group.

"By leveraging an integrated system that combines generation, grid, load and storage, computing facilities can directly tap into renewable energy from western China," said Wu Liqiang, deputy director at the Statistics and Digitalization Department of the China Electricity Council.

The model is supported by large-scale infrastructure. China's west-to-east power transmission project has just surpassed the 1 trillion kilowatt-hour mark, delivering electricity to Jiangsu and channeling renewable energy from resource-rich regions to major demand centers.

China has built one of the world's most extensive ultra-high-voltage (UHV) power grids and renewable energy systems, allowing wind and solar power from the west to support computing demand in the east, a system often described as "east data, west computing."

Analysts say this combination of energy and computing infrastructure is increasingly seen as a key factor shaping cost competitiveness in the AI era.