DeepSeek, Trump's plan steer agenda at China's premier AI forum

Straits Times

2 days ago

Star founders, Beijing officials and deep-pocketed financiers converge on Shanghai by the thousands this weekend to attend China's most important AI summit. At the top of the agenda: how to propel Beijing's ambitions to leapfrog the US in artificial intelligence – and profit off that drive.
The World Artificial Intelligence Conference, which has featured Elon Musk and Jack Ma in years past, was devised to showcase the cutting-edge of Chinese technology. The attendance for the 2025 edition may hit a record as it's taking place at a critical juncture in the US-Chinese tech rivalry.
This week,
US President Donald Trump unveiled his so-called AI Action Plan – a sort of call to arms to ensure the country keeps its lead in the post-ChatGPT epoch. At the same time,
the emergence of DeepSeek in January galvanized a generation of Chinese developers to ride a nationwide investment and innovation wave. From Alibaba Group Holding to fledgling firms such as Minimax, the country's AI aspirants have since moved aggressively to try and close the gap with the likes of OpenAI and Google.
'While many recognize DeepSeek's achievements, this represents just the beginning of China's AI innovation wave,' said Mr Louis Liang, an AI sector investor with Ameba Capital. 'We are witnessing the advent of AI mass adoption, this goes beyond national competition.'
The Shanghai conference rundown for now remains largely unknown – as it has in years past just days before kickoff. Chinese Premier Li Qiang will attend, and tech leaders from Tencent Holdings to ByteDance and startups like Zhipu AI and Moonshot are likely to turn out in force.
Here's what we can expect from the summit starting on July 26.
DeepSeek's Aura
Neither the startup nor its reclusive founder Liang Wenfeng feature in the advance literature for the event. And yet, the two-year-old firm is likely to be one of the topics du jour.
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Since its low-cost, high-performance AI model humbled much of Silicon Valley , the industry has watched China closely for another seismic moment. In a field notorious for splashing billions of dollars on Nvidia chips and data centres, DeepSeek's no-frills approach inspired a re-think of traditional models. And it challenged what till then was unquestioned US supremacy in bleeding-edge technology: Chinese president Xi Jinping himself turned out in public in February to congratulate Mr Liang and his fellow tech entrepreneurs.
China craves another big breakthrough. Downloads and usage of DeepSeek models have slowed, as has the pace of new model rollouts that peaked over the spring at once every few days. Now, much of the industry talk centres on why DeepSeek's R2 – the followup to its seminal R1 – hasn't yet emerged. Local media have blamed everything from Mr Liang's perfectionist streak to performance glitches.
Trump's, and Xi's, Ambitions
The conference gets underway days after the US leader signed executive orders to loosen regulations and expand energy supplies for data centres. 'From this day forward, it'll be a policy of the United States to do whatever it takes to lead the world in artificial intelligence,' Mr Trump told executives and lawmakers at a DC event. Among the attendees was Mr Jensen Huang, whose Nvidia is one of the companies at the heart of the global AI movement.
Much has been made in Washington of China's seemingly meteoric ascent in AI, with observers saying the country is now perhaps just months behind the US in terms of AI sophistication. That's a wafer-thin margin compared with sectors such as semiconductors, where America is regarded as many years or even generations ahead.
Mr Trump's newly announced action plan is likely to spur Chinese companies into accelerating their own plans to go global, in part by aggressively open-sourcing their AI platforms. Beijing wants AI to become a US$100 billion (S$128 billion) industry by 2030. At the Communist Party's April Politburo study session, Mr Xi emphasised that China must push for breakthroughs in critical areas like high-end chips and AI research.
Rise of the Robots
Chinese humanoid makers are expected to showcase their most advanced models. Last week, UBTech posted a video of its Walker S2 humanoid walking to a battery station, removing the pack from its back, placing it on the recharge pad before fitting itself with a new battery. While obviously edited and choreographed, it encapsulated the advances that Chinese firms have made in a wide-open field - and their lofty ambitions.
Unitree teased a bargain-basement price of under $10,000 for its androids. It joins the likes of AgiBot and UBTech in collectively driving a promising field in which American companies have so far failed to stake out a clear lead, despite decades of effort.
The Chinese companies 'are targeting hundreds to thousands of units to be delivered this year, racing to establish the ecosystem', Morgan Stanley analyst Sheng Wong said in a note this week.
Show the Money
Venture capitalists and deal-makers will be hunting for emerging tech leaders. And not all of them are Chinese.
China's largest venture capital houses are tapping the market for at least $2 billion in new funds. At least six of the country's most prominent VC firms – including Lightspeed China Partners and Monolith Management – are creating dollar-denominated funds designed to allow overseas investors to pool bets on Chinese companies.
That's a wave of fundraising that hasn't been seen among Chinese VCs for years. It's unfolding as global investors reassess the country's startup landscape and economy, which are showing signs of revival after years of Covid-era stagnation and regulatory headwinds.
Organisers promise a breakout event that will feature startup pitches and live demos for dealmakers. Startups by the hundreds are expected to fill a 70,000 sq m exhibition hall, showing off everything from autonomous delivery drones to machines that dispense toilet paper.
Missing Global Touch
Attendees are unlikely to spot US companies – at least not in major fashion. In 2024, Tesla popped up with its Cybertruck and Optimus robot. The 2025 speaker line-up doesn't (yet) include Mr Musk but does list Mr Yoshua Bengio, the Canadian scientist who pioneered artificial neural networks.
With the US-China tech rivalry accelerating, many American companies remain wary of drawing the spotlight.
Still, Beijing is likely to take the opportunity to continue pushing its international agenda. One of the conference centrepieces is a 'High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance' to discuss the challenges in deploying AI responsibly. To many observers, it's also emblematic of China's overarching goal of setting global standards.
'Since 2018, China has used WAIC to stake its claim on global AI technical and political leadership,' said Mr Tom Nunlist, associate director of the Beijing-based consultancy Trivium. 'With the race to AI now neck and neck between the US and China, that play is more compelling than ever.' BLOOMBERG