By 2025, the scale of China's core artificial intelligence industry will exceed 1.2 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of nearly 30%, and the number of AI enterprises will exceed 6000. China has become the largest holder of AI patents, accounting for 60% of the global total. Entering the first year of the 15th Five Year Plan in 2026, artificial intelligence is transforming from a key variable to a strong increment for high-quality economic development.

Technological innovation moves from following to running simultaneously

During the 14th Five Year Plan period, China's artificial intelligence has achieved a transformation from application innovation to bottom-up independent innovation. In terms of computing power, as of March 2026, China's intelligent computing scale has reached 1882EFLOPS, ranking among the top in the world. At the algorithmic level, the performance gap between top models in China and the United States has narrowed to about 2.7%, and the global cumulative download volume of domestically produced open-source models has exceeded 10 billion times. In the field of embodied intelligence, the cumulative shipment of humanoid robots will exceed 10000 units by 2025, and the annual production of complete machines is expected to exceed 100000 units by 2026.

Deeply empowering thousands of industries and businesses

Artificial intelligence is moving from point blooming to full chain intelligence. The penetration rate of artificial intelligence in key industries nationwide has exceeded 80%, and the penetration rate of AI applications in industrial enterprises above designated size has exceeded 30%. In the first half of 2026, the daily average usage of keywords and tones in AI big models will exceed 140 trillion, with a growth rate of over a thousand times in two years. The industries related to AI, such as integrated circuit manufacturing and intelligent vehicle equipment manufacturing, maintained a high growth rate of over 30%. In the first half of the year, the output of integrated circuits reached 279.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.1%.

In July 2026, the National Development and Reform Commission released the "Action Plan for Cooperative Development of Artificial Intelligence" at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference, which systematically deployed China's AI in eight aspects including computing power, data, ecology, and empowerment, to promote the continuous improvement of AI in global competition.Editor/Cheng Liting