GLOBAL tech giants and niche innovators alike have flocked to the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, driven by China’s booming artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem, where industrial integration, policy support and scalable applications have positioned the nation as a global hub for AI collaboration and innovation.
Demonstrating remarkable openness, more than half of the exhibitors at the WAIC hail from outside Shanghai or overseas. The event features participation from more than 60 foreign-funded enterprises and Chinese-foreign joint ventures, including approximately 10 global industry leaders.
Siemens, making its WAIC debut, is doubling down on integrating generative AI into the manufacturing, energy and building sectors. At the heart of its display is the China premiere of Industrial Copilot.
Visitors on site can witness its prowess in managing end-to-end workflows by fusing large language models with industry expertise.
“The window for industrial AI is wide open. China’s vast and diverse industrial system has become the most dynamic playground for AI applications, unlocking unprecedented potential for a new leap in productivity,” Xiao Song, global executive vice president and CEO of Siemens China, said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Monday.
Schneider Electric also emphasized that China has become a global highland for AI industry development and a crucial part of Schneider Electric’s global AI innovation strategic layout.
“As a global economic growth engine, China’s solid industrial foundation, diverse industry scenarios and rich innovation resources have laid a strong foundation for the industrialization of AI,” Schneider Electric said in a statement.
Schneider’s factory in Putuo district, Shanghai, empowered by AI, has boosted labor productivity by 82 percent, and its facility in Wuxi, Jiangsu, leverages AI to track carbon emissions, achieving a 90-percent reduction in emissions, the firm said.
In China, the policy support for “AI+,” a robust industrial foundation, diverse application scenarios and abundant innovation resources are fostering the rapid rise of AI industry clusters, making China a global hub for AI industry development and the most proactive global market in practicing large-scale AI applications, Schneider said.
South Korea’s MediaZen, which specializes in voice-related technologies with applications in the automotive industry, sees China as a model for ecosystem-building.
“In South Korea, we focus on AI data, algorithms, data resources and hardware. But in China, they have already moved toward applications and ecosystems. That’s very impressive because the ecosystem is crucial. It creates a fast cycle of generating revenue, reinvesting and developing further. This is something we need to learn from China,” said MinKyu Song, CEO of MediaZen.
He highlighted China’s significant strengths, including robust algorithms, exceptional human resources, abundant data and strong hardware capabilities.
UK-based Speechmatics, a company that specializes in speech recognition, also expressed a keen interest in finding more partners in China for collaborative research and development in the field of AI.
The Chinese market, with its vast potential and dynamic growth, holds immense appeal, said Paolina White, the company’s senior director of strategic clients.
China now leads globally with 1,509 large AI models released, accounting for more than one-third of the world’s 3,755 such models, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
According to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), China boasts more than 5,100 AI enterprises, accounting for approximately 15 percent of the global total. These companies have established a complete industrial ecosystem that covers everything from fundamental infrastructure to sector-specific applications. Notably, China is home to 71 of the world’s 271 AI unicorn companies, representing about 26 percent of the global share.
Yu Xiaohui, CAICT president, said that large-scale AI models have experienced accelerated iteration this year, with new technological approaches continuously emerging. A dynamic industrial ecosystem has taken shape, propelled by industry leaders, emerging unicorns, specialized technology firms and a growing number of innovative startups, Yu said.
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