At the recently concluded 2025 World Intelligent Industry Expo held in Chongqing, Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, stated that over the past five years, the number of artificial intelligence (AI) enterprises in China has grown from more than 1,400 to over 5,000, averaging about one new AI company every 11 hours. Among these 5,000+ enterprises, there are over 400 national-level AI specialized and innovative "Little Giant" companies.
According to statistics from the “China Internet Development Report (2021),” there were a total of 1,454 AI enterprises in China as of 2020. The report noted that in recent years, China has placed great emphasis on AI development. In July 2017, China released and implemented the “New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan”; and in August this year, the “Opinions on Deepening the Implementation of the ‘Artificial Intelligence+’ Initiative” was issued, which proposes to accelerate the formation of a new intelligent economy and society characterized by human-machine collaboration, cross-sector integration, and co-creation and sharing.
"The foundation of the intelligent industry is becoming increasingly solid, intelligent products are booming, and empowered applications are becoming more deeply integrated," introduced Xin Guobin. China has already established more than 35,000 basic-level, over 6,300 advanced-level, and over 230 excellence-level intelligent factories, as well as 11 national pilot zones for AI innovation applications and 17 national-level demonstration zones for intelligent and connected vehicle testing.
Xin Guobin said China has established a national AI industry investment fund with a total scale of 60 billion RMB (35.504 billion MYR), developed management measures for artificial intelligence technology ethics services, founded the China-BRICS AI Development and Cooperation Center, cumulatively formulated more than 240 standards in AI core technology fields, and is continuously improving the industry ecosystem.