Guangzhou base of TCL Air Conditioner churns out unit every 7 seconds

A new manufacturing base in Guangzhou's Nansha district, operated by TCL Air Conditioner, was put into operation on March 28, with assembly lines now producing one unit every seven seconds.

TCL Air Conditioner's Guangzhou base. [Photo/WeChat account: nanshafabu]

The facility, built with an investment of nearly 2 billion yuan ($275 million), spans more than 20 hectares and has an annual capacity of 8 million units. It houses three fully flexible "dark factories" — automated facilities that operate without human intervention — 15 advanced labs, 10 intelligent lines and industrial robots, supported by a high-performance computing platform.

A key highlight is the AI-driven supercomputing center, capable of 300 petaflops, which processes data from 17,000 IoT sensors to meet the real-time computing demands of over 2,000 AI agents.

In 2026, the base is projected to achieve an output value of 3 billion yuan, with a target of 10 billion yuan during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30). The facility and its chain enterprises are expected to create over 10,000 jobs.

In addition, the factory operates with a zero-carbon production system, integrating 50,000 square meters of solar panels and energy storage. AI-driven energy management enables annual solar power generation of nearly 7 million kilowatt-hours, saving about 2,081 metric tons of standard coal equivalent.