Latest news with #StepFun
Business Wire
31-07-2025
- Automotive
- Business Wire
Geely Auto Group Teams Up with StepFun for a Joint Showcase at the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference
HANGZHOU, China--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On July 26, Geely Auto Group partnered with its strategic tech ecosystem partner, StepFun, to jointly exhibit at the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC 2025). Geely showcased a suite of new products, including the Zeekr 9X, LYNK & CO 10 EM-P, Geely Galaxy A7, and Geely Galaxy M9. Also on display were the fruits of Geely's 'Full-Domain AI' technology system, such as the Qianli Haohan intelligent driver-assistance system, the Geely Future Mobility Constellation, and AI-powered wearable devices. And the Galaxy M9—highlighted as the world's first vehicle equipped with a Human-like AI agent. This AI agent, powered by StepFun's end-to-end voice large model, enables emotionally intelligent voice interactions, adapting tone and content based on user emotion and intent. Also on display were key achievements of Geely's 'Full-Domain AI' technology system, including the Qianli Haohan intelligent driver-assistance platform, the Geely Future Mobility Constellation, and advanced AI wearables. Geely's Zeekr 009, serving as WAIC's official vehicle partner, drew strong attention and praise. StepFun debuted its latest foundational large model, Step 3, and—alongside Geely and Qianli Technology—launched the Agent OS (Preview Version), a next-generation smart cockpit operating system built for AI-native applications. The OS integrates multimodal large models and voice AI to deliver human-like, emotionally responsive in-cabin experiences. Since early 2021, Geely has pursued its "Intelligent Geely 2025" strategy, establishing itself as the only automaker with full-domain AI deployment—integrating AI across vehicle architecture, powertrain, chassis, cockpit, R&D, manufacturing, and services. Geely's AI ecosystem, supported by partners such as StepFun and Geespace, includes the Xingrui Intelligent Data Center 2.0, boasting 23.5 EFLOPS of compute power—China's highest among automakers. Its AI models leverage over 10 trillion tokens and 40 billion vertical automotive data points, fueling rapid AI training and application. Technologies like the Qianli Haohan system, Thunderbolt AI Hybrid 2.0, and AI Digital Chassis are already in mass production, delivering advanced safety and intelligence across all domains. 'Geely entered the AI field early, developed rapidly. In the next phase, Geely will build a technical architecture focused on 'interaction faster + thinking deeper,' evolving AI from a mere execution tool into an intelligent assistant capable of handling complex tasks. Geely also aspires to transform from an automaker into China's, and potentially the world's, largest robotics company,' said LI Chuanhai, VP of Geely Auto Group.
Yahoo
30-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Accelerating the Evolution of Automotive Embodied Intelligence, Geely Auto Group Teams Up with StepFun for a Joint Showcase at the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference
Hangzhou, China, July 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On July 26, Geely Auto Group partnered with its strategic tech ecosystem partner, StepFun, to jointly exhibit at the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC 2025). Geely showcased a suite of new products, including the Zeekr 9X, LYNK & CO 10 EM-P, Geely Galaxy A7, and Geely Galaxy M9. Also on display were the fruits of Geely's 'Full-Domain AI' technology system, such as the Qianli Haohan intelligent driver-assistance system, the Geely Future Mobility Constellation, and AI-powered wearable devices. Highlighting the showcase was the Geely Galaxy M9, featuring the industry's first Human-like AI agent for Vehicles. This agent leverages StepFun's end-to-end AI voice large model, marking a significant revolution in human-machine interaction. Furthermore, Geely's Zeekr 009, serving as the official vehicle partner for this year's WAIC, garnered widespread acclaim and enthusiastic praise from conference the event, StepFun revealed its latest foundational large model, Step 3. Additionally, together with Qianli Technology and Geely Auto Group, StepFun launched the next-generation smart cockpit Agent OS (Preview Version). Tailored for AI Agent-native applications, this innovation promises users a cockpit interaction experience that feels more natural, human-like, and emotionally engaging. Switch Auto Insurance and Save Today! Affordable Auto Insurance, Customized for You Great Rates and Award-Winning Service The Insurance Savings You Expect Partnering with StepFun to Revolutionize Intelligent Interaction Experiences, Geely Galaxy M9 Debuted the world's first Human-like AI agent for Vehicles StepFun is a strategic tech ecosystem partner of Geely Auto Group and one of its five AI ecosystem partners. Together, they have achieved a series of breakthroughs in multimodal large models, intelligent driving, and cockpit technologies. Back in February, StepFun and Geely Auto Group jointly announced the open-sourcing of two co-developed Step series multimodal large models for global developers. Now, the Geely Galaxy M9, Geely's all-new 'AI Tech Grand Six-Seater Flagship SUV,' has globally debuted an Human-like AI agent for Vehicles. This agent is equipped with StepFun's 'end-to-end AI voice large model,' enabling groundbreaking, ultra-natural emotional voice interactions. Powered by human-like emotional computing, it delivers more natural voice performance and speech segmentation. Its conversational emotions and spoken style are richer, and it can dynamically adjust its tone and manner based on the user's emotional state and semantic intent. It can also provide proactive care and companionship. During the WAIC 2025, Qianli Technology partnered with StepFun and Geely Auto Group to jointly launch the next-generation intelligent cockpit operating system, Agent OS (Preview Version), specifically designed for native AI Agent applications. Powered by StepFun's industry-leading multimodal large models and end-to-end voice large models, it features key capabilities such as multimodal fusion for ultra-natural interaction, integrated cloud-edge memory, human-machine co-piloting based on fully integrated maps, and a third living space. This promises users a more natural, human-like, and emotionally engaging cockpit interaction experience. Furthermore, just before the opening of the 2025 WAIC, StepFun also unveiled its latest foundational large model, Step 3. Based on Step 3, StepFun and Geely are set to deepen their partnership, jointly propelling a comprehensive upgrade in automotive intelligence experiences. The World's Only Automaker with Full-domain AI Coverage, Geely is Leading the Development of Cars Towards Embodied Intelligence The era of embodied intelligence is dawning swiftly, driven by the rapid advancement of AI technology. Leveraging a robust technological foundation and an intelligent ecosystem, Geely is leading the development of cars towards embodied intelligence. Looking ahead, it even aspires to become the world's largest robotics entered the AI field early and has achieved rapid development. As early as 2021, the company unveiled its 'Intelligent Geely 2025' strategy, aiming to build an 'intelligent technology ecosystem network' by leveraging cutting-edge infrastructure like high computing power, big data, large models, and satellite constellations, thereby establishing a solid technological foundation. Building on this, in January 2025, Geely officially launched the industry's first 'Full-domain AI for Intelligent Vehicles' technology system. This system not only widely applies AI across the entire vehicle domain including architecture, powertrain, chassis, and cockpit, but also integrates it deeply into the full value chain, encompassing product R&D, manufacturing, and after-sales service. This milestone positions Geely as the only automaker globally to have completed this comprehensive 'Full-domain AI' layout. As competition in the automotive industry shifts from 'breakthroughs in single technologies' to 'ecosystem synergy and efficiency,' Geely is collaborating with technological ecosystem partners like StepFun and Qianli Technology to create a benchmark for 'AI + Car' technological cooperation. They are engaging in comprehensive collaboration in areas such as model optimization, product definition, and software and hardware development, building a full-chain, all-encompassing collaborative innovation system. Computing power, algorithms, and data are the 'three core engines' of AI, and Geely has achieved comprehensive leadership in all these areas. In terms of computing power, Geely, together with its technological ecosystem partners like StepFun, Qianli Technology, DreamSmart, and Geespace, has established the world's only 'Intelligent Vehicle Compute Alliance'—the Xingrui Intelligent Data Center 2.0. With a combined computing power of 23.5 EFLOPS, it firmly holds the top spot among Chinese automakers. On the algorithm front, Geely's Xingrui AI large model system has achieved deep integration with multimodal large models like StepFun's. In terms of data, Geely has accumulated 10 trillion tokenized data points and 40 billion pieces of vertical automotive data, providing the core 'fuel' for large model training and significantly raising the upper limit of their 'cognitive capabilities.'Powered by the strong impetus from these three core AI engines, Geely has harnessed AI technologies like end-to-end learning, VLA (Vehicle Learning Architecture), and world models to launch the Qianli Haohan intelligent driver-assistance system. This system delivers a fully-scenario-safe intelligent mobility experience to users. According to CHEN Qi, Chief Scientist of Autonomous Driving at Geely Holding Group and Vice President of Zeekr Technology Group, in the fourth quarter of this year, Qianli Haohan will implement a brand-new L3-oriented technical architecture, a cloud-based WM+ foundational large model, and an in-vehicle VLA+ end-to-end adversarial safety model. These advancements will enable AI to train AI and AI to verify AI. Currently, Geely has become the automaker with the widest adoption of AI agents integrated into vehicles and the pioneer automaker in AI-powered vehicle manufacturing. The technological achievements of Geely's all-domain AI technologies, such as the Qianli Haohan intelligent driver-assistance system in the driving domain, the Thunderbolt AI Hybrid 2.0 in the powertrain domain, the AI Digital Chassis in the chassis domain, and the AI Intelligent Architecture in the platform domain, are all in mass production. These innovations deliver an unprecedented intelligent and safe mobility experience to users. LI Chuanhai, Vice President of Geely Auto Group and Director of the Geely Automotive Research Institute, stated, 'Geely entered the AI field early, developed rapidly. Our AI technologies have been widely applied and undergone significant transformation. We are not only the fastest company to transition traditional cars towards embodied intelligence but are also committed to guiding AI to become a powerful tool for human progress. In the next phase, Geely will build a technical architecture focused on 'interaction faster + thinking deeper,' evolving AI from a mere execution tool into an intelligent assistant capable of handling complex tasks. At that point, every Geely vehicle will become a physical connection point, helping users tap into the vast AI universe. Geely also aspires to transform from an automaker into China's, and potentially the world's, largest robotics company.' CONTACT: Mengjia Lv in to access your portfolio
Business Upturn
30-07-2025
- Automotive
- Business Upturn
Accelerating the Evolution of Automotive Embodied Intelligence, Geely Auto Group Teams Up with StepFun for a Joint Showcase at the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference
Hangzhou, China, July 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — On July 26, Geely Auto Group partnered with its strategic tech ecosystem partner, StepFun, to jointly exhibit at the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC 2025). Geely showcased a suite of new products, including the Zeekr 9X, LYNK & CO 10 EM-P, Geely Galaxy A7, and Geely Galaxy M9. Also on display were the fruits of Geely's 'Full-Domain AI' technology system, such as the Qianli Haohan intelligent driver-assistance system, the Geely Future Mobility Constellation, and AI-powered wearable devices. Highlighting the showcase was the Geely Galaxy M9, featuring the industry's first Human-like AI agent for Vehicles. This agent leverages StepFun's end-to-end AI voice large model, marking a significant revolution in human-machine interaction. Furthermore, Geely's Zeekr 009, serving as the official vehicle partner for this year's WAIC, garnered widespread acclaim and enthusiastic praise from conference attendees. During the event, StepFun revealed its latest foundational large model, Step 3. Additionally, together with Qianli Technology and Geely Auto Group, StepFun launched the next-generation smart cockpit Agent OS (Preview Version). Tailored for AI Agent-native applications, this innovation promises users a cockpit interaction experience that feels more natural, human-like, and emotionally engaging. Partnering with StepFun to Revolutionize Intelligent Interaction Experiences, Geely Galaxy M9 Debuted the world's first Human-like AI agent for Vehicles StepFun is a strategic tech ecosystem partner of Geely Auto Group and one of its five AI ecosystem partners. Together, they have achieved a series of breakthroughs in multimodal large models, intelligent driving, and cockpit technologies. Back in February, StepFun and Geely Auto Group jointly announced the open-sourcing of two co-developed Step series multimodal large models for global developers. Now, the Geely Galaxy M9, Geely's all-new 'AI Tech Grand Six-Seater Flagship SUV,' has globally debuted an Human-like AI agent for Vehicles. This agent is equipped with StepFun's 'end-to-end AI voice large model,' enabling groundbreaking, ultra-natural emotional voice interactions. Powered by human-like emotional computing, it delivers more natural voice performance and speech segmentation. Its conversational emotions and spoken style are richer, and it can dynamically adjust its tone and manner based on the user's emotional state and semantic intent. It can also provide proactive care and companionship. During the WAIC 2025, Qianli Technology partnered with StepFun and Geely Auto Group to jointly launch the next-generation intelligent cockpit operating system, Agent OS (Preview Version), specifically designed for native AI Agent applications. Powered by StepFun's industry-leading multimodal large models and end-to-end voice large models, it features key capabilities such as multimodal fusion for ultra-natural interaction, integrated cloud-edge memory, human-machine co-piloting based on fully integrated maps, and a third living space. This promises users a more natural, human-like, and emotionally engaging cockpit interaction experience. Furthermore, just before the opening of the 2025 WAIC, StepFun also unveiled its latest foundational large model, Step 3. Based on Step 3, StepFun and Geely are set to deepen their partnership, jointly propelling a comprehensive upgrade in automotive intelligence experiences. The World's Only Automaker with Full-domain AI Coverage, Geely is Leading the Development of Cars Towards Embodied Intelligence The era of embodied intelligence is dawning swiftly, driven by the rapid advancement of AI technology. Leveraging a robust technological foundation and an intelligent ecosystem, Geely is leading the development of cars towards embodied intelligence. Looking ahead, it even aspires to become the world's largest robotics company. Geely entered the AI field early and has achieved rapid development. As early as 2021, the company unveiled its 'Intelligent Geely 2025' strategy, aiming to build an 'intelligent technology ecosystem network' by leveraging cutting-edge infrastructure like high computing power, big data, large models, and satellite constellations, thereby establishing a solid technological foundation. Building on this, in January 2025, Geely officially launched the industry's first 'Full-domain AI for Intelligent Vehicles' technology system. This system not only widely applies AI across the entire vehicle domain including architecture, powertrain, chassis, and cockpit, but also integrates it deeply into the full value chain, encompassing product R&D, manufacturing, and after-sales service. This milestone positions Geely as the only automaker globally to have completed this comprehensive 'Full-domain AI' layout. As competition in the automotive industry shifts from 'breakthroughs in single technologies' to 'ecosystem synergy and efficiency,' Geely is collaborating with technological ecosystem partners like StepFun and Qianli Technology to create a benchmark for 'AI + Car' technological cooperation. They are engaging in comprehensive collaboration in areas such as model optimization, product definition, and software and hardware development, building a full-chain, all-encompassing collaborative innovation system. Computing power, algorithms, and data are the 'three core engines' of AI, and Geely has achieved comprehensive leadership in all these areas. In terms of computing power, Geely, together with its technological ecosystem partners like StepFun, Qianli Technology, DreamSmart, and Geespace, has established the world's only 'Intelligent Vehicle Compute Alliance'—the Xingrui Intelligent Data Center 2.0. With a combined computing power of 23.5 EFLOPS, it firmly holds the top spot among Chinese automakers. On the algorithm front, Geely's Xingrui AI large model system has achieved deep integration with multimodal large models like StepFun's. In terms of data, Geely has accumulated 10 trillion tokenized data points and 40 billion pieces of vertical automotive data, providing the core 'fuel' for large model training and significantly raising the upper limit of their 'cognitive capabilities.' Powered by the strong impetus from these three core AI engines, Geely has harnessed AI technologies like end-to-end learning, VLA (Vehicle Learning Architecture), and world models to launch the Qianli Haohan intelligent driver-assistance system. This system delivers a fully-scenario-safe intelligent mobility experience to users. According to CHEN Qi, Chief Scientist of Autonomous Driving at Geely Holding Group and Vice President of Zeekr Technology Group, in the fourth quarter of this year, Qianli Haohan will implement a brand-new L3-oriented technical architecture, a cloud-based WM+ foundational large model, and an in-vehicle VLA+ end-to-end adversarial safety model. These advancements will enable AI to train AI and AI to verify AI. Currently, Geely has become the automaker with the widest adoption of AI agents integrated into vehicles and the pioneer automaker in AI-powered vehicle manufacturing. The technological achievements of Geely's all-domain AI technologies, such as the Qianli Haohan intelligent driver-assistance system in the driving domain, the Thunderbolt AI Hybrid 2.0 in the powertrain domain, the AI Digital Chassis in the chassis domain, and the AI Intelligent Architecture in the platform domain, are all in mass production. These innovations deliver an unprecedented intelligent and safe mobility experience to users. LI Chuanhai, Vice President of Geely Auto Group and Director of the Geely Automotive Research Institute, stated, 'Geely entered the AI field early, developed rapidly. Our AI technologies have been widely applied and undergone significant transformation. We are not only the fastest company to transition traditional cars towards embodied intelligence but are also committed to guiding AI to become a powerful tool for human progress. In the next phase, Geely will build a technical architecture focused on 'interaction faster + thinking deeper,' evolving AI from a mere execution tool into an intelligent assistant capable of handling complex tasks. At that point, every Geely vehicle will become a physical connection point, helping users tap into the vast AI universe. Geely also aspires to transform from an automaker into China's, and potentially the world's, largest robotics company.' Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with GlobeNewswire. Business Upturn takes no editorial responsibility for the same. Ahmedabad Plane Crash
Hindustan Times
30-07-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
How China Is Girding for an AI Battle With the U.S.
China is ramping up efforts to build a domestic artificial-intelligence ecosystem that can function without Western technology, as it steels itself for a protracted tech contest with the U.S. Washington has been trying to slow China's AI progress through export controls and other restrictions that limit Chinese access to U.S. capital, talent and advanced U.S. technologies. To an extent, those restrictions have worked. But China is fighting back with expanding efforts to become more self-sufficient in AI—a push that could ultimately make it less vulnerable to U.S. pressure if it succeeds. Many of the initiatives were on display at an AI conference that ended this week in Shanghai, which Chinese authorities used as a showcase for products free of U.S. technologies. One startup, Shanghai-based StepFun, touted a new AI model that it said required less computing power and memory than other systems, making it more compatible with Chinese-made semiconductors. Although Chinese chips are less capable than American products, Huawei Technologies and other companies have been narrowing the gap by clustering more chips together, boosting their performance. China also released an AI global governance plan at the event, the World Artificial Intelligence Conference, which called for establishing an international open-source community through which AI models can be freely deployed and improved by users. Industry participants say it showed China's ambition to set global standards for AI and could undermine the U.S., whose leading models aren't open-source. The conference followed a series of announcements and investments in China aimed at turbocharging its AI capabilities, including rapid expansions in power generation and skills training. The whole-nation effort, led by Beijing, includes billions of dollars in spending by state-owned enterprises, private companies and local governments. China's securities regulator has largely refrained from approving initial public offerings of companies whose businesses aren't related to 'hard tech' sectors such as semiconductors and AI, so that capital can concentrate on funding technologies of strategic importance, people involved in the process said. China's AI push has included the expansion of skills robots boxing at the AI conference in Shanghai. Victory in the global AI race carries high stakes. AI is expected to upend economies and militaries, and leadership in the sector is seen as critical to future global influence and national security. The U.S. maintains its early lead, with Silicon Valley home to the most popular AI models and the most powerful chips. Much of China's AI spending has led to waste and overcapacity. China also clearly wants U.S. technologies. Access to advanced chips has been a priority for Chinese negotiators in trade talks, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Sales of Nvidia's H20 AI chips to China were recently restored by Washington after it restricted them in April, a reversal seen by Beijing as a gesture of good faith in the talks. The Trump administration is taking steps to try to preserve the U.S.'s lead. It recently announced an AI 'action plan,' which aims to slash red tape and make it easier for tech companies to build data centers needed to train AI models. Earlier this year at the White House, OpenAI and Japan's SoftBank unveiled a $500 billion effort to build new AI data centers, though the project has faced delays. China, though, has shown a willingness to spend whatever it takes. The rising popularity of DeepSeek, the Chinese AI startup, has buoyed Beijing's hopes that it can become more self-sufficient. Huawei has published several papers this year detailing how its researchers used its homegrown chips to build large language models without relying on American technology. 'China is obviously making progress in hardening its AI and computing ecosystem,' said Michael Frank, founder of think tank Seldon Strategies. 'Project Spare Tire' China's biggest AI challenge is overcoming its difficulty in sourcing the world's most-advanced chips. Washington has cut China off from some of Nvidia's most sophisticated semiconductors, as well as the advanced machine tools used to make cutting-edge chips, restrictions that many experts believe will continue to hold China back. Huawei is helping spearhead efforts to navigate those restrictions. During a meeting with President Xi Jinping in February, Chief Executive Officer Ren Zhengfei told Xi about 'Project Spare Tire,' an effort by Huawei and 2,000 other enterprises to help China's semiconductor sector achieve a self-sufficiency rate of 70% by 2028, according to people familiar with the meeting. Increasingly, the company has been able to bundle together the best chips it can produce to match the performance of some American computing systems. That is helping local companies reach some of the same computing goals as the U.S., such as training state-of-the-art generative AI models, though it consumes more power than U.S. chips. U.S. researcher SemiAnalysis recently reported that one such Huawei cluster, which connects 384 of its Ascend chips, outperforms Nvidia's flagship system with 72 graphics-processing units on some metrics. Morgan Stanley analysts forecast that China will have 82% of AI chips from domestic makers by 2027, up from 34% in 2024. China's government has played an important role, funding new chip initiatives and other projects. In July, the local government in Shenzhen, where Huawei is based, said it was raising around $700 million to invest in strengthening an 'independent and controllable' semiconductor supply chain. Prodded by Beijing, Chinese financial institutions, state-owned companies and government agencies have rushed to deploy Chinese-made AI models, including DeepSeek and Alibaba's Qwen. That has fueled demand for homegrown AI technologies and fostered domestic supply chains. Some companies ordered expensive AI servers to deploy the models even before they came up with a use for the technology, according to people familiar with the matter. Open-source advantage At the Shanghai conference, organized by China's government and featuring more than 800 companies, Chinese researchers played down the impact of U.S. export controls on advanced chips. They compared notes on how they were focusing on overcoming bottlenecks through better model designs and engineering techniques. Many also touted Chinese companies' tendency to give users free access to modify and deploy their AI models, an open-source approach that has boosted adoption of Chinese models globally. While the world's best large language model is still American, the best model that everyone can use free is now Chinese. According to benchmark provider Artificial Analysis, the overall performance of China's best open-weight model has surpassed the American champion since November. In recent weeks, a flurry of Chinese companies have flooded the market with open-source models, many of which are claiming to surpass DeepSeek's performance in certain use cases. OpenAI's Sam Altman said his company had pushed back the release of its open-source model indefinitely for further safety testing. Talent and power China is also investing heavily in other areas, including more electricity to power domestic data centers to develop and run AI. It is spending $564 billion on grid construction projects in the five years up to 2030, an increase of more than 40% from the previous five years, Morgan Stanley researchers forecast. China currently has about 2.5 times as much power-generation capacity as the U.S., a disparity that is projected to grow larger in the next five years despite the U.S. expanding power generation. China has also approved more than 600 colleges to set up degree programs in AI, according to data released by the country's Ministry of Education in April. That is up from 35 universities with such programs in 2019. In Beijing, primary and secondary schools will begin mandatory AI lessons for students starting in September. China's efforts have already enabled it to develop a robust pipeline of homegrown talent, according to researchers from the Hoover Institution and Stanford University, who recently evaluated the backgrounds of more than 200 authors involved in DeepSeek's papers between 2024 and February 2025. More than half of these DeepSeek researchers never left China for schooling or work, they found. The U.S. has fewer universities that offer AI degree programs, but American universities dominate rankings for computer and information science. This April, President Trump signed an executive order mandating AI education and learning opportunities for American youth. Write to Raffaele Huang at and Liza Lin at How China Is Girding for an AI Battle With the U.S. How China Is Girding for an AI Battle With the U.S.
Mint
30-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
How China is girding for an AI battle with the US
China is ramping up efforts to build a domestic artificial-intelligence ecosystem that can function without Western technology, as it steels itself for a protracted tech contest with the U.S. Washington has been trying to slow China's AI progress through export controls and other restrictions that limit Chinese access to U.S. capital, talent and advanced U.S. technologies. To an extent, those restrictions have worked. But China is fighting back with expanding efforts to become more self-sufficient in AI—a push that could ultimately make it less vulnerable to U.S. pressure if it succeeds. Many of the initiatives were on display at an AI conference that ended this week in Shanghai, which Chinese authorities used as a showcase for products free of U.S. technologies. One startup, Shanghai-based StepFun, touted a new AI model that it said required less computing power and memory than other systems, making it more compatible with Chinese-made semiconductors. Although Chinese chips are less capable than American products, Huawei Technologies and other companies have been narrowing the gap by clustering more chips together, boosting their performance. China also released an AI global governance plan at the event, the World Artificial Intelligence Conference, which called for establishing an international open-source community through which AI models can be freely deployed and improved by users. Industry participants say it showed China's ambition to set global standards for AI and could undermine the U.S., whose leading models aren't open-source. The conference followed a series of announcements and investments in China aimed at turbocharging its AI capabilities, including rapid expansions in power generation and skills training. The whole-nation effort, led by Beijing, includes billions of dollars in spending by state-owned enterprises, private companies and local governments. China's securities regulator has largely refrained from approving initial public offerings of companies whose businesses aren't related to 'hard tech" sectors such as semiconductors and AI, so that capital can concentrate on funding technologies of strategic importance, people involved in the process said. China's AI push has included the expansion of skills robots boxing at the AI conference in Shanghai. Victory in the global AI race carries high stakes. AI is expected to upend economies and militaries, and leadership in the sector is seen as critical to future global influence and national security. The U.S. maintains its early lead, with Silicon Valley home to the most popular AI models and the most powerful chips. Much of China's AI spending has led to waste and overcapacity. China also clearly wants U.S. technologies. Access to advanced chips has been a priority for Chinese negotiators in trade talks, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Sales of Nvidia's H20 AI chips to China were recently restored by Washington after it restricted them in April, a reversal seen by Beijing as a gesture of good faith in the talks. The Trump administration is taking steps to try to preserve the U.S.'s lead. It recently announced an AI 'action plan," which aims to slash red tape and make it easier for tech companies to build data centers needed to train AI models. Earlier this year at the White House, OpenAI and Japan's SoftBank unveiled a $500 billion effort to build new AI data centers, though the project has faced delays. China, though, has shown a willingness to spend whatever it takes. The rising popularity of DeepSeek, the Chinese AI startup, has buoyed Beijing's hopes that it can become more self-sufficient. Huawei has published several papers this year detailing how its researchers used its homegrown chips to build large language models without relying on American technology. 'China is obviously making progress in hardening its AI and computing ecosystem," said Michael Frank, founder of think tank Seldon Strategies. China's biggest AI challenge is overcoming its difficulty in sourcing the world's most-advanced chips. Washington has cut China off from some of Nvidia's most sophisticated semiconductors, as well as the advanced machine tools used to make cutting-edge chips, restrictions that many experts believe will continue to hold China back. Huawei is helping spearhead efforts to navigate those restrictions. During a meeting with President Xi Jinping in February, Chief Executive Officer Ren Zhengfei told Xi about 'Project Spare Tire," an effort by Huawei and 2,000 other enterprises to help China's semiconductor sector achieve a self-sufficiency rate of 70% by 2028, according to people familiar with the meeting. Increasingly, the company has been able to bundle together the best chips it can produce to match the performance of some American computing systems. That is helping local companies reach some of the same computing goals as the U.S., such as training state-of-the-art generative AI models, though it consumes more power than U.S. chips. U.S. researcher SemiAnalysis recently reported that one such Huawei cluster, which connects 384 of its Ascend chips, outperforms Nvidia's flagship system with 72 graphics-processing units on some metrics. Morgan Stanley analysts forecast that China will have 82% of AI chips from domestic makers by 2027, up from 34% in 2024. China's government has played an important role, funding new chip initiatives and other projects. In July, the local government in Shenzhen, where Huawei is based, said it was raising around $700 million to invest in strengthening an 'independent and controllable" semiconductor supply chain. Prodded by Beijing, Chinese financial institutions, state-owned companies and government agencies have rushed to deploy Chinese-made AI models, including DeepSeek and Alibaba's Qwen. That has fueled demand for homegrown AI technologies and fostered domestic supply chains. Some companies ordered expensive AI servers to deploy the models even before they came up with a use for the technology, according to people familiar with the matter. At the Shanghai conference, organized by China's government and featuring more than 800 companies, Chinese researchers played down the impact of U.S. export controls on advanced chips. They compared notes on how they were focusing on overcoming bottlenecks through better model designs and engineering techniques. Many also touted Chinese companies' tendency to give users free access to modify and deploy their AI models, an open-source approach that has boosted adoption of Chinese models globally. While the world's best large language model is still American, the best model that everyone can use free is now Chinese. According to benchmark provider Artificial Analysis, the overall performance of China's best open-weight model has surpassed the American champion since November. In recent weeks, a flurry of Chinese companies have flooded the market with open-source models, many of which are claiming to surpass DeepSeek's performance in certain use cases. OpenAI's Sam Altman said his company had pushed back the release of its open-source model indefinitely for further safety testing. China is also investing heavily in other areas, including more electricity to power domestic data centers to develop and run AI. It is spending $564 billion on grid construction projects in the five years up to 2030, an increase of more than 40% from the previous five years, Morgan Stanley researchers forecast. China currently has about 2.5 times as much power-generation capacity as the U.S., a disparity that is projected to grow larger in the next five years despite the U.S. expanding power generation. China has also approved more than 600 colleges to set up degree programs in AI, according to data released by the country's Ministry of Education in April. That is up from 35 universities with such programs in 2019. In Beijing, primary and secondary schools will begin mandatory AI lessons for students starting in September. China's efforts have already enabled it to develop a robust pipeline of homegrown talent, according to researchers from the Hoover Institution and Stanford University, who recently evaluated the backgrounds of more than 200 authors involved in DeepSeek's papers between 2024 and February 2025. More than half of these DeepSeek researchers never left China for schooling or work, they found. The U.S. has fewer universities that offer AI degree programs, but American universities dominate rankings for computer and information science. This April, President Trump signed an executive order mandating AI education and learning opportunities for American youth. Write to Raffaele Huang at and Liza Lin at
