Press Release for Media Briefing of the Shanghai Municipal Government on July 10, 2025

2025.07.10

Today (July 10), the Information Office of Shanghai Municipality held a press briefing for the 2025 World AI Conference and the High-level Meeting on Global AI Governance. Zhang Ying, deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai Municipal Government and director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, introduced the overall arrangements and preparations for the conference. Sun Xiaobo, coordinator of AI Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Ruomeng, deputy director of the High Technology Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, Du Guangda, deputy director of the Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Li Hui, deputy chief of Pudong New Area, Wei Lan, deputy chief of Xuhui District, and Zhou Jin, vice president of Donghao Lansheng Group Co Ltd attended the press briefing and jointly answered questions from reporters.Deepen the AI Industry Chain Across the BoardDeveloping a new generation of artificial intelligence is a national strategic priority. During his visit to Shanghai in April, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited the Shanghai Foundation Model Innovation Center (SMC) and called on the city to summarize its success in incubating the AI industry through a robust foundation-model ecosystem. He urged Shanghai to intensify its efforts, lead in all aspects of AI development and governance, and set a national example. Following the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee’s guidance, Shanghai is seizing strategic opportunities to deepen its full-spectrum AI industry chain and aim to double the size of innovative enterprises, industry scale, and talent pool. In the first quarter alone, the city’s AI industry reached a scale of 118 billion yuan, up 29 percent year on year, with profits growing by 65 percent — becoming a powerful new engine of economic growth. The priority is to build five strategic pillars.Strive to Build a High-Efficiency Hub for Industrial InnovationShanghai is pushing forward with an integrated layout of computing power, corpus data, and foundation models. The city’s intelligent computing base is rapidly expanding, with a unified platform launched to coordinate resources citywide. By year-end, total intelligent computing capacity is expected to exceed 100 EFlops. A professional corpus operation platform — the first of its kind in China — has been established, powered by a “crowdsourcing, crowd-creation, and crowdfunding” model. Over 1,800TB of corpus data has been completed, and five key standards including Corpus Construction Guidelines have been released. The city has also developed a “1+3” system of open-source and commercial foundation models, with leading institutions such as Shanghai AI Lab, MiniMax, StepFun, and SenseTime driving innovation in open source, AI Agents, and multimodal systems.Strive to Build a Vertical Demonstration Zone Empowering All SectorsUnder the ambition to mold the city into an AI hub, Shanghai is focused on “5+6” key sectors and is accelerating the implementation of “AI+” across industries. Vertical models are rolling out in manufacturing, finance, healthcare, education, and more, with 82 foundation models already registered. Scientific intelligence is advancing through the “100 Groups, 100 Projects” initiative, and AI4S is yielding landmark innovations, with industry-leading “Fuxi” weather foundation model and “Morning Star” protein design model. In embodied intelligence, Shanghai has launched the humanoid robot innovation center, unveiled the open-source robot “Qinglong,” and released the world’s first embodied sports model, “Longyue,” enabling intelligent transformation in manufacturing, logistics, and transport.Strive to Foster an Open, Integrated AI EcosystemThe city and districts are jointly developing high-level industrial carriers, with Xuhui’s SMC and Pudong’s Model Magic Community serving as the core anchors. Together, they form a differentiated development pattern. SMC focuses on the model ecosystem and has attracted over 500 “AI+” enterprises, while Model Magic Community is centered on embodied intelligence and vertical applications, hosting nearly 200 AI companies. Full-cycle financing support will be provided, led by the National Artificial Intelligence Fund and the municipal AI parent fund. Efforts will focus on computing power, corpus data, and other critical elements to establish specialized sub-funds. District-level funds will also be integrated to build a comprehensive financing system that supports companies from the seed stage through to maturity.Strive to Build a Magnet for Young Innovators and EntrepreneursGeneral Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that artificial intelligence is both a cause of the young and a cause for the young. Shanghai is committed to cultivating a new generation of AI entrepreneurs by establishing Shanghai Innovation Institute and supporting student-led startup teams. Fourteen universities have been encouraged to set up AI research institutes, and 19 have launched AI-related majors. Efforts are underway to accelerate the development of a multi-tiered AI talent pipeline, including optimizing talent policies, improving professional evaluation systems, and attracting top-tier experts. Today, Shanghai is home to nearly 300,000 AI professionals — accounting for roughly one-third of the national total. At the same time, the city is building a comprehensive open-source ecosystem by introducing platforms such as Ali ModelScope and the OpenAtom Foundation to foster vibrant online developer communities. A total of 420 billion tokenized texts and 1TB of video-text data has been made available, significantly lowering the threshold for AI innovation and entrepreneurship.Strive to Foster a Pioneer for Governance Collaboration on AI for GoodShanghai is committed to balancing innovation and security. The city has developed a multidimensional governance framework that includes planning, legislation, policy support, and ethical oversight. Key actions include implementing the Shanghai Declaration on Global AI Governance, revising the Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on Promoting the Development of the Artificial Intelligence Sector, and establishing an AI ethics expert committee. On the international front, Shanghai has launched the Global Alliance on AI for Industry and Manufacturing Centre of Excellence and the China-BRICS AI Development and Cooperation Center. The city has also built cooperative mechanisms with 38 countries to foster global industry alignment and technological exchange.Deepen Openness and Cooperation in Artificial Intelligence WorldwideHosting the WAIC at a high standard is a key step in implementing the important instructions delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping during his visit to Shanghai and in advancing global openness and collaboration in AI. Since its inception in 2018, WAIC has been held successfully for seven consecutive years, attracting over 6,000 top experts from around the world and drawing more than 2.5 billion online participants. It has grown into one of the world’s largest, most professional, and most influential events in the field of artificial intelligence. This year’s conference has drawn even greater international attention. Leaders of the Party and the central government have attached great importance to the event, extending invitations to the global community on multiple occasions. The CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee and Shanghai Municipal Government have also prioritized the conference, with senior officials personally overseeing its planning. Preparations are well underway and progressing steadily according to schedule.The WAIC 2025 is jointly hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the China Association for Science and Technology, and the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government. The event will take place from July 26 to 28 across three venues: the Shanghai World Expo Center, the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center, and the West Bund in Xuhui. Centered on the theme “Global Solidarity in the AI Era,” the conference will feature five major sections — forums, exhibitions, competition awards, application experiences, and innovation incubation — offering a comprehensive showcase of the latest advances in AI technology, industry trends, and global governance.With a focus on internationalization, a hundred forums will gather global minds to explore the intelligent future together. This year’s WAIC will adopt a new “1+1+2+10+N” structure: one opening ceremony and main forum, one high-level meeting on global AI governance, two plenary sessions on scientific frontiers and development security, more than 10 ministerial forums, and numerous ecosystem forums. A new series of youth elite dialogues and debates will bring together global thought leaders, top-tier CEOs, and rising young talents for in-depth exchanges on cutting-edge topics such as the evolution of foundation models, embodied intelligence, and quantum computing. So far, over 1,200 guests from more than 30 countries and regions have confirmed attendance, including 12 recipients of the Turing Award, Nobel Prize, and other top honors, over 80 Chinese and international academicians, and representatives from leading global research labs.With a focus on high-end development, the exhibition will reach an unprecedented scale, showcasing cutting-edge products and breakthrough innovations. For the first time, the exhibition area will exceed 70,000 square meters, hosting over 800 participating companies — more than half of which are international or based outside Shanghai. The exhibitor lineup includes dozens of leading domestic AI firms, over 60 major multinational companies such as Siemens and Schneider, and more than 30 central state-owned enterprises alongside their ecosystem partners. Over 3,000 cutting-edge exhibits will be showcased, including more than 40 AI foundation models, over 50 AI terminal products, more than 60 intelligent robots, and over 100 heavyweight new products making their global or China debut, making this the largest exhibition in the event’s history.With a focus on youth, award categories and forum topics have been fully upgraded to ignite fresh energy and creativity among young innovators. The prestigious SAIL Award attracted 240 global entries, with international submissions accounting for 17%. The Youth Outstanding Paper Award received nearly 200 submissions, with an average participant age of 29, and 79.4% from PhD students or early-career researchers — highlighting the innovation potential of the next generation. New to this year’s conference are three “Frontier Questions” tracks — on science, mathematics, and AI models — designed to foster bold dialogue on cutting-edge topics such as life sciences, next-generation AI architecture, and the intersection of AI and mathematics.With a focus on specialization, the conference will enable precise matchmaking for innovation and incubation, fostering a new industrial ecosystem. A newly launched venture capital incubation section will bring together over 200 startups for on-site roadshows, matched with more than 100 investment institutions, offering end-to-end services for demand discovery, solution matchmaking, and funding. Intelligent experiences have also been comprehensively upgraded. A “WAIC City Tour” will weave together a smart lifestyle ring, urban service ring, and industrial ecosystem ring — featuring hands-on experiences with humanoid robots, intelligent driving, and low-altitude economic applications. Specially curated “AI Shanghai Tours” will highlight the city’s industrial landmarks and concurrent events, fostering deeper industrial collaboration.The 2025 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance is about to open. We warmly invite friends old and new to join us in Shanghai for this global gathering in the field of artificial intelligence.