> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.sotkn.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # What Does VNET Do? China Data Centers Built for Cloud and AI - URL: https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-vnet-do/ - Published: 2026-11-11T13:34:26.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-11T13:34:26.000Z - Description: VNET Group rents powered data-center halls in China to cloud and internet giants, plus retail racks and a cloud business. At 30 June 2026 it had 1,007 MW live, 744 MW in use and 585 MW under construction, paid for with heavy borrowing. - Author: Sean - Tags: #layer-ai-data-centers VNET Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: VNET), which renamed itself from 21Vianet Group on 13 October 2021, is a Beijing-based data-center company. It rents space and power in large wholesale data centers to cloud providers and internet companies, rents single racks to thousands of smaller customers, and runs a cloud and network business that includes being Microsoft's local partner for Azure in China. Its founder, Josh Sheng Chen, started the business in May 1996 and opened what VNET calls China's first carrier-neutral data center in July 1999\. At 30 June 2026 its wholesale business had 1,007 MW of capacity in service, 744 MW of it used by customers, and another 585 MW under construction. In September 2026 investment vehicles linked to the battery maker CATL closed the purchase of 38.1% of VNET's shares from Shandong Hi-Speed. `AI DATA CENTERS` · `Data as at 30 Jun 2026` · `Next update: after VNET's third-quarter 2026 results (not yet furnished to the SEC at 11 Nov 2026)` **Affects:** AI Data Centers · China · Cloud VNET sits on the [AI Data Centers layer](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/) with the companies that build powered halls and collect rent on them. Its closest peer is [GDS](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-gds-do/), the other large independent wholesale operator in China. It sits beside [Sify](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-sify-do/) in India, [Bitdeer](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-bitdeer-do/) out of Singapore, [NEXTDC](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-nextdc-do/) in Australia and global groups such as [Equinix](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-equinix-do/) and [Digital Realty](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-digital-realty-do/). VNET is not a pure landlord. It still runs a retail rack business that has been around since 1999 and a cloud and VPN arm. But the wholesale halls are now the largest and fastest-growing part, and they decide whether the rest of the story works. **In short:** VNET makes money three ways. Wholesale data centers, where one cloud or internet customer takes a whole hall or building, brought in 39.8% of revenue in the quarter to 30 June 2026 and grew 29.3% from a year earlier. Retail data centers, where many customers rent racks, brought in about 37.6% (our arithmetic). Cloud and VPN services were about 22.6% (our arithmetic). The stuck step is filling and finishing halls with borrowed money: 744 MW of the 1,007 MW in service was in use, 585 MW more was being built, and the company planned RMB10 billion to RMB12 billion of capital spending in 2026 while its quarterly operating cash flow was RMB218.1 million. VNET does not publish rent per megawatt or name its wholesale customers. *Education only, not advice to buy or sell any security. Figures are from VNET's US SEC filings: its second-quarter 2026 results, furnished on 18 August 2026; its first-quarter 2026 results, furnished on 26 May 2026; its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results, furnished on 16 March 2026; its annual report on Form 20-F for 2025, filed on 16 April 2026; and its 13 May, 13 August, 21 September and 27 October 2026 announcements. VNET reports in Chinese renminbi under US GAAP. Its second-quarter release translates at RMB6.7851 to one US dollar, the 30 June 2026 Federal Reserve noon buying rate; we use that rate only where we say so.* ## Numbers that matter Wholesale capacity in service 1,007 MW Up from 674 MW a year earlier and 907 MW at 31 March 2026 · 30 Jun 2026 **Growing** Used by customers 744 MW 73.9% of capacity in service; mature halls 92.5%, ramp-up halls 36.6% · 30 Jun 2026 **Filling** Under construction 585 MW On top of the 1,007 MW in service · 30 Jun 2026 **Bind** New wholesale orders, 2026 to date 862 MW Including 510 MW from one internet customer and 345 MW from one cloud provider · by 18 Aug 2026 **Demand** Q2 2026 revenue RMB2.78bn Up 14.2%; wholesale 39.8% of the total · quarter to 30 Jun 2026 **Mixed** Q2 adjusted EBITDA RMB918.3m 33.0% margin; interest expense was RMB204.5m · quarter to 30 Jun 2026 **Engine** 2026 capex plan RMB10–12bn Guidance unchanged at the August results **Heavy** Net debt before leases RMB16.21bn Our arithmetic: RMB23.42bn of debt less RMB7.21bn of cash and short-term investments · 30 Jun 2026 **Stretched** Status chips are Second Order's read. Capacity, orders, revenue, EBITDA, capex guidance, debt and cash are VNET's own figures. Net debt is our arithmetic from the debt and cash lines in the 18 August 2026 release and excludes lease liabilities; VNET does not publish a net debt figure in that release. ## What does VNET actually do? Get the land and the power. Build the hall. Sign one big tenant per building, or many small ones per rack. Then keep borrowing to build the next one. **Wholesale halls for cloud and AI. Retail racks for everyone else. Cloud on top.** 1. **It builds wholesale data centers for very large customers.** VNET calls this its wholesale IDC business (IDC means internet data center). One customer, usually a cloud provider or a large internet company, commits to most or all of a building. Capacity is counted in megawatts of power the halls can deliver to servers. At 30 June 2026 VNET had 1,007 MW in service, 970 MW committed to customers under signed agreements and 744 MW actually used. It had another 585 MW under construction. In 2025 it delivered a record 404 MW, according to its full-year results. At 31 December 2025, 578 MW, or 65.0%, of wholesale capacity in service was in the Greater Beijing area and 311 MW, or 35.0%, in the Yangtze River Delta around Shanghai, according to its annual report. 2. **It rents racks to thousands of smaller customers.** The retail business is the original one: customers rent cabinets, the metal racks that hold servers, and connect to China's internet backbone through VNET's carrier-neutral sites. At 30 June 2026 VNET had 50,081 retail cabinets in service, 32,314 of them used, a 64.5% utilisation rate. Monthly recurring revenue per cabinet was RMB9,799 in the second quarter, up 9.9% from a year earlier. Of about 46,100 self-built retail cabinets at the end of 2025, about 56.1% were in Greater Beijing, 20.3% in the Yangtze River Delta and 14.4% in the Greater Bay Area around Shenzhen and Guangzhou. VNET also leases data-center space and cabinets from China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile, which it calls partnered data centers. 3. **It runs cloud and network services, including Microsoft's cloud in China.** VNET has worked with Microsoft since 2013, when it began providing public cloud services. Its annual report says it is Microsoft's local partner for Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform in China. It also sells VPN services, private network links that connect a customer's offices and servers. These non-IDC services brought in RMB628.4 million in the second quarter of 2026, up 1.1%. 4. **It is now raising money by selling stakes in finished halls.** VNET's annual report describes pre-REIT funds with Dajia Insurance Group, in which VNET keeps 51% and Dajia holds 49%. The first holds a data-center project in eastern China with about 210 MW of IT capacity. It also describes asset-backed securities schemes listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, including one of RMB0.86 billion launched in November 2025, of which institutions bought about 93% and VNET kept 7%. Its first-quarter 2026 results said two REIT projects listed in March 2026\. The idea is simple: sell part of a finished, rented hall to long-term investors and use the cash to build the next one, while VNET keeps operating the site. | Wholesale data centers | 30 Jun 2025 | 31 Dec 2025 | 31 Mar 2026 | 30 Jun 2026 | | ------------------------------- | ------------------------- | ----------- | ----------- | ----------- | | Capacity in service | 674 MW | 889 MW | 907 MW | 1,007 MW | | Capacity committed to customers | 674 MW | 848 MW | 869 MW | 970 MW | | Capacity used by customers | 511 MW | 623 MW | 687 MW | 744 MW | | Utilisation rate | 75.9% | 70.1% | 75.7% | 73.9% | | Ramp-up halls utilisation | 20.8% | 31.7% | 45.0% | 36.6% | | Under construction | not given in this release | 452 MW | 516 MW | 585 MW | All figures in the table are from VNET's quarterly results releases. Utilisation is VNET's own measure: capacity used by customers divided by capacity in service. A mature hall, in VNET's definition, is one at or above 80% utilisation; a ramp-up hall is below 80%. The gap between committed and used is the part customers have signed for but not yet filled with running servers. At 30 June 2026 that gap was 226 MW (our arithmetic: 970 − 744). Capacity in service that no customer had committed to was 37 MW (our arithmetic: 1,007 − 970). If everything under construction is finished on top of what is in service, wholesale capacity would reach 1,592 MW (our arithmetic: 1,007 + 585). VNET says its total resource reserves, which include land and power it has secured but not yet built on, exceeded 4 GW after the second quarter, when it added about 1.4 GW: 908 MW in mainland China and 478 MW overseas. It does not name the overseas country or countries in that release, and it does not give a delivery date for the reserves. The second-quarter release says the 57 MW rise in used capacity during the quarter came mainly from two campuses, N-HB Campus 03 and N-OR Campus 01\. VNET identifies campuses by code, not by full address, and does not split capacity by customer. --- ## How does VNET make money? Three bills, with wholesale now in front. Wholesale grows fastest because each new hall comes with a big tenant. Retail grows slowly on price per rack. Cloud and VPN are flat. - **Wholesale data centers.** Revenue was RMB1.10 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up 29.3% from RMB854.1 million a year earlier, and 39.8% of the group total. For all of 2025 wholesale revenue was RMB3.46 billion, up 77.4%. In the first quarter of 2026 wholesale revenue passed retail for the first time. VNET does not publish rent per megawatt or say whether customers' electricity is billed inside or on top of the rent. Dividing quarterly wholesale revenue by the average capacity used during the quarter gives about RMB0.51 million per used megawatt per month (our arithmetic: RMB1.10 billion ÷ 715.5 MW, the average of 687 MW and 744 MW, ÷ 3). That mixes rent, power and any other charges, so treat it as a rough scale, not a price. - **Retail data centers.** Revenue was about RMB1.05 billion in the second quarter, up 9.1% from RMB958.7 million. VNET bills monthly per cabinet; the average was RMB9,799 in the quarter. Retail capacity has been roughly flat at about 50,000 cabinets, so growth has come from price and mix rather than more racks. In 2025 retail revenue was RMB3.96 billion, up 3.5%. - **Cloud and VPN (non-IDC).** Revenue was RMB628.4 million in the quarter, up 1.1%, and RMB2.52 billion in 2025, up 1.8%. This is where the Microsoft partnership sits. VNET's annual report lists failure to keep that partnership as a risk to its cloud business. It does not split out how much revenue comes from Microsoft-related services. In the second quarter of 2026, total revenue was RMB2.78 billion (US$409.5 million), up 14.2%. Adjusted EBITDA, which strips out depreciation, amortisation and share-based pay from operating profit, was RMB918.3 million, a 33.0% margin, up from 30.1%. Gross margin, which counts depreciation, fell to 18.2% from 22.5%, which VNET put down to depreciation from new capacity. Depreciation and amortisation were RMB684.0 million, about 24.6% of revenue (our arithmetic). Operating profit was RMB229.3 million. Below operating profit, interest expense was RMB204.5 million, about 22.3% of adjusted EBITDA (our arithmetic). After tax, a RMB47.1 million loss from changes in the fair value of financial instruments, and the share of profit owed to minority investors in its funds, net loss attributable to VNET was RMB135.6 million. Adjusted net income, which only strips out the fair-value change, was RMB7.4 million. For all of 2026, VNET guided to revenue of RMB11.5 billion to RMB11.8 billion, adjusted EBITDA of RMB3.55 billion to RMB3.75 billion and capital expenditure of RMB10 billion to RMB12 billion, and kept that guidance unchanged in August. Planned capex is 2.7 to 3.3 times the midpoint of its EBITDA guidance (our arithmetic: RMB10 billion and RMB12 billion ÷ RMB3.65 billion). In the first half it paid RMB3.27 billion for property and equipment (our arithmetic: RMB1.75 billion + RMB1.51 billion), roughly 27% to 33% of the full-year range, so the plan implies a heavier second half if it is met (our arithmetic). --- ## What limits it? Filling halls first. Funding them second. Who controls the company third. 1. **Built is not the same as used.** At 30 June 2026, 744 MW of the 1,007 MW in service was used, and ramp-up halls were only 36.6% used, down from 45.0% three months earlier as new halls opened. Halls earn their full rent only once customers move servers in. VNET had 226 MW committed but not yet used (our arithmetic) and 585 MW more under construction. If customers take longer to fill what they signed for, depreciation and interest arrive before the revenue does. VNET does not say how long its customers' ramp schedules are. 2. **The build is paid for with borrowing and asset sales.** At 30 June 2026 VNET had RMB4.18 billion of short-term debt and RMB19.24 billion of long-term debt, including RMB4.84 billion of convertible notes, against RMB7.21 billion of cash, restricted cash and short-term investments. That is RMB16.21 billion of net debt before lease liabilities (our arithmetic), about 4.3 to 4.6 times its 2026 EBITDA guidance (our arithmetic). Operating cash flow in the first half was RMB391.8 million, against RMB3.27 billion spent on property and equipment (our arithmetic). In the first quarter alone VNET raised RMB8.14 billion of new debt, refinancing and equity. On 27 October 2026 it repurchased about US$75.3 million of its US$250.0 million 2.00% convertible notes due 2027 for about US$80.0 million including accrued interest, leaving about US$174.7 million of those notes outstanding (our arithmetic). 3. **Minority investors now share the profit from some halls.** Redeemable non-controlling interests, the stakes outside investors hold in some VNET project vehicles, rose from RMB1.71 billion at 31 December 2025 to RMB5.23 billion at 30 June 2026\. In the first quarter VNET booked a RMB1.70 billion accretion to the redemption amount of these interests, which pushed the loss attributable to ordinary shareholders to RMB2.23 billion that quarter even though operating profit was RMB246.9 million. Shareholders' equity attributable to VNET fell from RMB6.22 billion to RMB4.08 billion over the half. The releases do not set out the redemption terms in plain figures. 4. **China's energy rules decide where halls can go.** VNET's annual report sets out local rules on power usage effectiveness, or PUE, the ratio of a site's total power to the power that reaches servers. In Guangdong, for example, new data centers in national hub clusters must average a PUE of 1.25 or less. Beijing rules cover renewable energy use and require a minimum actual utilisation within two years of an energy review. Tighter rules can slow approvals or force more spending per megawatt. The same report notes VNET depends on China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile for bandwidth and leased space; its five largest suppliers accounted for 46% of bandwidth and cabinet resources in 2025. 5. **Ownership and control have just changed.** On 21 September 2026 PJ Millennium I and II, vehicles whose general partner is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lochpine Capital, a non-controlled affiliate of CATL, closed the purchase of 650,424,192 Class A shares, about 38.1% of VNET, from two Shandong Hi-Speed subsidiaries at US$1.4486 a share (US$8.6914 per ADS). Under a voting and consortium agreement that took effect at closing, the buyers vote certain of those shares as the founder directs for a specified period. In August VNET and CATL signed a strategic cooperation agreement on compute-energy projects. None of the filings put a megawatt or money figure on that cooperation. 6. **It is a China-listed-abroad structure.** VNET's annual report explains that it runs its regulated telecom business in China through variable interest entities, contracts that give the listed company control and economics without direct ownership, because Chinese law restricts foreign ownership of those businesses. The same report describes the 2022 listing of VNET under the US Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act and the later removal of mainland China and Hong Kong from the inspection blacklist. Both are standing risks the company itself discloses. Where the filings are silent we say so. VNET does not name its wholesale customers, publish rent per megawatt, say whether electricity is billed inside the rent, give delivery dates for the 585 MW under construction or the 4 GW of reserves, name the overseas markets for its 478 MW overseas land bank, put figures on the CATL cooperation, or, as of 11 November 2026, give a date for its third-quarter 2026 results. We do not estimate those. --- ## Who else does this? Roles, not a league table. | Company | What it does | What makes it different | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **VNET** | Beijing-based wholesale and retail data centers, plus cloud and VPN | 1,007 MW wholesale in service, 65% of it around Beijing at end-2025; Microsoft's Azure partner in China; CATL-linked vehicles now hold 38.1% | | **[GDS](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-gds-do/)** | Wholesale data-center operator in China, with a separate South-east Asia platform | The other large independent China wholesale builder, headquartered in Shanghai | | **[Sify](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-sify-do/)** | Indian data centers, network and digital services | Same mix of halls plus network plus cloud, but in India and at a smaller scale | | **[Bitdeer](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-bitdeer-do/)** | Singapore-headquartered miner turned AI host | Converts mining power to AI halls; VNET builds for cloud tenants from the start | | **[NEXTDC](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-nextdc-do/) / [Keppel DC REIT](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-keppel-dc-reit-do/)** | Australian operator / Singapore-listed landlord | Asia halls businesses outside mainland China; Keppel DC REIT owns halls and pays out rent, the kind of buyer VNET's REIT and asset-backed sales are aimed at | | **[Equinix](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-equinix-do/) / [Digital Realty](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-digital-realty-do/)** | Global colocation and interconnection | The global version of VNET's retail-plus-wholesale model | What separates VNET is where its megawatts sit and who sits on its register. Most of its wholesale capacity is around Beijing, close to the country's large internet and cloud customers. Today's [China Mobile Markets Pulse](https://www.sotkn.com/markets/china/china-mobile-ai-supernodes-substation-wait-november-2026/) shows the same pressure from the carrier side: compute plans move faster than grid links. And since September 2026 its largest shareholder group is a set of vehicles linked to CATL, a battery maker, which bought its stake from Shandong Hi-Speed. See [Hyperscale vs Colocation Data Centers](https://www.sotkn.com/explained/hyperscale-vs-colocation-data-center/) and [Data Center Leases Explained](https://www.sotkn.com/explained/data-center-lease-explained/) for how wholesale and retail contracts differ. --- ## What would change this view? The read on the model weakens if: - Ramp-up halls stay below half full for several more quarters while the 585 MW under construction keeps opening, so depreciation and interest grow faster than revenue. - Capex in the second half of 2026 runs well below the RMB10 billion to RMB12 billion plan, which would mean deliveries slip, or well above it without new asset sales, which would push net debt higher. - VNET discloses another large wholesale order with a megawatt figure and a named delivery year, or reports that a large committed customer has delayed or cut back. - More halls are sold into REITs or asset-backed schemes, showing whether finished sites can be recycled into cash at scale, and how much of each hall's profit VNET keeps afterwards. - The CATL cooperation produces a project with a megawatt figure, a site and a power arrangement, or the new shareholders change the board or the founder's voting arrangement. The read holds while wholesale capacity keeps filling toward the committed figure, adjusted EBITDA grows faster than interest expense, and the company can keep funding the build through debt, asset sales and its new shareholders without a sharp further fall in equity. --- ## Practical takeaways - VNET Group, formerly 21Vianet, is a Beijing-based data-center company: wholesale halls for cloud and internet customers, retail racks, and cloud and VPN services including Microsoft's Azure in China. - At 30 June 2026 it had 1,007 MW of wholesale capacity in service, 744 MW used and 585 MW under construction; 65% of wholesale capacity in service at end-2025 was around Beijing. - Wholesale was 39.8% of second-quarter revenue and growing 29.3%; retail and cloud grew far more slowly. - Adjusted EBITDA was RMB918.3 million in the quarter, but interest, depreciation and payments to minority investors left a RMB135.6 million net loss attributable to VNET. - Net debt before leases was about RMB16.21 billion (our arithmetic) against a 2026 capex plan of RMB10 billion to RMB12 billion. - CATL-linked vehicles bought 38.1% of the company from Shandong Hi-Speed in September 2026; the cooperation with CATL has no published megawatt figure yet. --- ## FAQ **What does VNET do?** VNET Group, Inc. is a Beijing-based data-center company listed on Nasdaq under the ticker VNET. It rents space and power in large wholesale data centers to cloud and internet companies, rents racks in retail data centers to thousands of smaller customers, and sells cloud and VPN services, including acting as Microsoft's local partner for Azure in China. Each American depositary share represents six Class A ordinary shares. **Is VNET the same company as 21Vianet?** Yes. 21Vianet Group, Inc. changed its company name to VNET Group, Inc. on 13 October 2021, according to its annual report. The founder, Josh Sheng Chen, started the business in 1996 and is executive chairperson. **How much data center capacity does VNET have?** At 30 June 2026 VNET's wholesale business had 1,007 MW in service, 970 MW committed to customers, 744 MW used by customers and 585 MW under construction. Its retail business had 50,081 cabinets in service. VNET says its total resource reserves, including secured land and power not yet built, exceed 4 GW. **Who are VNET's customers?** VNET says most of its revenue comes from China's internet industry, including cloud providers, e-commerce, online media, gaming and fintech companies, and that it serves more than 7,000 hosting and enterprise customers. In 2026 it announced a 510 MW wholesale order from a leading internet customer and a 345 MW order from a leading cloud service provider, but it does not name them. **Who owns VNET?** On 21 September 2026 investment vehicles whose general partner is part of Lochpine Capital, a non-controlled affiliate of the battery maker CATL, closed the purchase of about 38.1% of VNET's shares from two subsidiaries of Shandong Hi-Speed Holdings Group. Under a voting agreement that took effect at closing, those vehicles vote certain of their shares as the founder directs for a specified period. **Is VNET profitable?** Not on a net basis yet. In the quarter to 30 June 2026 VNET reported adjusted EBITDA of RMB918.3 million and adjusted net income of RMB7.4 million, but a net loss attributable to the company of RMB135.6 million, after interest, tax, fair-value changes and the share owed to minority investors in its project funds. --- ## Keep reading on the map - **The layers:** [AI Data Centers](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/) · [Neoclouds](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/neoclouds/) · [Hyperscalers](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/hyperscalers/) - **The terms:** [What Is an AI Data Center?](https://www.sotkn.com/explained/what-is-an-ai-data-center/) · [Hyperscale vs Colocation Data Centers](https://www.sotkn.com/explained/hyperscale-vs-colocation-data-center/) · [Data Center Leases Explained](https://www.sotkn.com/explained/data-center-lease-explained/) · [Data Center Financing Explained](https://www.sotkn.com/explained/data-center-financing-explained/) · [Contracted Power Explained](https://www.sotkn.com/explained/contracted-power-explained/) - **Other halls businesses in Asia:** [What Does GDS Do?](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-gds-do/) · [What Does Sify Do?](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-sify-do/) · [What Does Bitdeer Do?](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-bitdeer-do/) · [What Does NEXTDC Do?](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-nextdc-do/) · [What Does Keppel DC REIT Do?](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-keppel-dc-reit-do/) · [What Does Nxera Do?](https://www.sotkn.com/stack/ai-data-centers/what-does-nxera-do/) - **The power:** [How Much Power Does an AI Data Center Use?](https://www.sotkn.com/explained/how-much-power-does-an-ai-data-center-use/) · [Where Are AI Data Centers Located?](https://www.sotkn.com/explained/where-are-ai-data-centers-located/) · [China Markets Pulse](https://www.sotkn.com/markets/china/) For how money is raised against a finished hall, read [Data Center Financing Explained](https://www.sotkn.com/explained/data-center-financing-explained/). This page stays the free Stack read of the VNET model. ## Sean Writes Second Order by TKN — a plain-English map of AI infrastructure. Who gets paid, where money sticks, which step is stuck. Not investment advice. [Author page →](https://www.sotkn.com/author/sean/) · [Editorial standards →](https://www.sotkn.com/editorial-standards/) ## How we check this Figures come from VNET's filings with the US SEC listed below: its second-quarter 2026 results (furnished 18 August 2026), first-quarter 2026 results (26 May 2026), fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results (16 March 2026), annual report on Form 20-F for 2025 (filed 16 April 2026), and its announcements of 13 May, 13 August, 21 September and 27 October 2026\. Where we work something out ourselves, the arithmetic is shown in full and labelled. VNET does not name its wholesale customers, publish rent per megawatt, give delivery dates for capacity under construction, or set a date for its third-quarter 2026 results in those filings, so we do not estimate those. Social media posts and press reports are not used. **Last reviewed:** 11 Nov 2026 · **Next review:** after VNET's third-quarter 2026 results (not yet furnished to the SEC at 11 Nov 2026) Spot an error? Tell us and we will correct it and note the change here. [Our editorial standards →](https://www.sotkn.com/editorial-standards/) ## References 1. VNET Group, Inc., [VNET Reports Unaudited Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results (Form 6-K, Exhibit 99.1)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1508475/000110465926098054/tm2623481d1%5Fex99-1.htm?ref=sotkn.com) (company, SEC exhibit 99.1), 18 Aug 2026 — Q2 revenue by line, adjusted EBITDA, net loss, wholesale capacity in service, committed, used and under construction, utilisation, orders, land bank, debt, cash, cash flow and 2026 guidance 2. VNET Group, Inc., [Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1508475/000110465926044361/vnet-20251231x20f.htm?ref=sotkn.com) (company, SEC filing), 16 Apr 2026 — Business lines, regional capacity split, Microsoft partnership, pre-REIT funds and ABS schemes, PUE rules, supplier concentration, VIE structure, founder and shareholders 3. VNET Group, Inc., [VNET Reports Unaudited First Quarter 2026 Financial Results (Form 6-K, Exhibit 99.1)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1508475/000110465926065937/tm2615608d1%5Fex99-1.htm?ref=sotkn.com) (company, SEC exhibit 99.1), 26 May 2026 — Q1 capacity, 510 MW order, wholesale passing retail, REIT listings, financing raised and redeemable non-controlling interests 4. VNET Group, Inc., [VNET Reports Unaudited Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Financial Results (Form 6-K, Exhibit 99.1)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1508475/000110465926027850/tm268889d1%5Fex99-1.htm?ref=sotkn.com) (company, SEC exhibit 99.1), 16 Mar 2026 — 2025 revenue by line, 404 MW delivered, year-end capacity and 2026 guidance 5. VNET Group, Inc., [VNET Announces Closing of Previously Announced Strategic Investment (Form 6-K, Exhibit 99.1)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1508475/000110465926109028/tm2625821d1%5Fex99-1.htm?ref=sotkn.com) (company, SEC exhibit 99.1), 21 Sep 2026 — Closing of the 38.1% share purchase by CATL-affiliated vehicles and the voting agreement 6. VNET Group, Inc., [VNET Announces Repurchase of 30% of Its Convertible Senior Notes due 2027 (Form 6-K, Exhibit 99.1)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1508475/000110465926118995/tm2628357d1%5Fex99-1.htm?ref=sotkn.com) (company, SEC exhibit 99.1), 27 Oct 2026 — US$75.3 million of 2027 convertible notes repurchased for about US$80.0 million