China’s Top Chipmaker Warns Rushed AI Capacity Could Sit Idle

China’s top chipmaker has warned that breakaway spending on artificial intelligence chips is bringing forward years of future demand, raising the risk that some data centers could sit idle.

“Companies would love to build 10 years’ worth of data center capacity within one or two years,” Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.’s Co-Chief Executive Officer Zhao Haijun said Wednesday on a call with analysts. “As for what exactly these data centers will do, that hasn’t been fully thought through.”