At the 5th Global Digital Trade Expo's venture day in Hangzhou, a white paper said China's AI industry is accelerating from technology breakthroughs to scaled commercial deployment, with embodied intelligence the top funding theme.
Zhejiang University Holdings released the "China AI Tech New-Consumption Industry and Investment Trend White Paper (2026)." It outlined four shifts: competition moving from "parameters" to "deployment"; tech-new-consumption as the key scenario for scaled AI adoption; embodied intelligence as the top funding line, with capital migrating from whole machines to "brains" and components; and going global entering a "system" stage requiring product definition, model iteration, compliance and localization.
Observers noted policy, capital and commercial deployment are driving the sector, though concerns remain over bubbles and the incomplete investment-return closed loop.
