On September 19, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially approved Chongqing to build a National AI Industry Innovation Application Pilot Zone. The city has cultivated 1,395 foundational-level smart factories, 246 advanced-level factories and 5 global lighthouse factories, released its first 30 industrial agents, and opened a city-governance large model to 51 units with over 71 million cumulative calls.
The approval underscores the central government's push to turn AI from a model-building race into real industrial deployment, with western hubs like Chongqing becoming test beds for "AI + manufacturing" at scale. It follows a wave of local AI industry-cluster policies and complements national compute and model initiatives.
Together with the same-day "ten-department" plan to accelerate AI empowerment of drug R&D under the 15th Five-Year pharmaceutical-industry plan, the moves signal broadening, application-led AI industrial policy entering the second half of 2026.
Source: MIIT / Chongqing Daily
