According to the official release from Beijing, on January 5, the city hosted the 2026 Beijing Conference on Advancing the Construction of an AI Innovation Highland—the first major event focusing on artificial intelligence in Beijing in 2026. At the conference, the Action Plan for Building Beijing into an AI Innovation Highland was officially issued. Moving forward, Beijing will comprehensively implement the “Nine Major Initiatives” to accelerate the construction of a global AI innovation hub, with the goal of exceeding 1 trillion yuan in the scale of its core AI industry within approximately two years. The “Nine Major Initiatives” provide a full-scale layout for key AI sectors, including technological innovation, independent ecosystems, critical elements, scenario-based applications, and innovation ecosystems.
Artificial intelligence is emerging as a core force reshaping the global competitive landscape and spearheading a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. At the crucial starting point of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Beijing’s official release of the Action Plan for Building an AI Innovation Highland anchors the ambitious goal of becoming the “Global No.1 AI City”. It sets the progressive target of breaking the 1-trillion-yuan mark in core industry scale within two years, and outlines a clear development blueprint through the nine specialized initiatives, injecting strong momentum into the high-quality development of China’s AI industry.
Solid Industrial Foundation: Half of National AI Core Resources Gathered in Beijing
In 2025, the scale of Beijing’s core AI industry is projected to reach 450 billion yuan, with over 2,500 enterprises clustered in the city—accounting for roughly half of the national total. The city is home to nearly 60 AI-related listed companies and around 40 unicorn enterprises. China’s highest-valued AI unicorn, the first listed domestic AI chip enterprise, and the first listed large model enterprise all originated in Beijing, marking the initial emergence of a robust industrial cluster effect.
Beijing has launched the construction of its first batch of four AI innovation blocks, namely Haidian Origin Community, Economic and Technological Development Zone (ETDZ) Digital-Modular World, Chaoyang Optical-Intelligent Space, and Shijingshan Cultural Intelligence Sphere. Each block focuses on distinct featured areas: Haidian Origin Community emphasizes technological R&D and talent aggregation; Chaoyang Optical-Intelligent Space targets next-generation computing paradigms such as quantum computing; ETDZ Digital-Modular World focuses on embodied intelligence and intelligent hardware; and Shijingshan Cultural Intelligence Sphere cultivates a distinctive “AI + Culture” innovation cluster. These blocks are poised to become the core engines of Beijing’s AI development and national innovation landmarks.
“Nine Major Initiatives”: Three-Core Layout for Comprehensive AI Development
The newly released Action Plan, with the nine specialized initiatives as its core pillars, addresses the pain points and challenges across all stages of AI development with precision, demonstrating a systematic and forward-looking development mindset.
On the technological innovation front: The Technological Innovation Source Initiative focuses on tackling core technologies such as new model architectures and swarm intelligence; the Independent Intelligent Computing Ecosystem Foundation Initiative accelerates the performance catch-up of domestic AI chips; and the High-Quality Data Aggregation Initiative strengthens the supply of high-quality datasets across multiple fields. These three initiatives work in tandem to consolidate the foundation for technological innovation.
On the application implementation front: The Full-Spectrum Application Empowerment Initiative promotes the construction of national AI application pilot bases in sectors like healthcare and manufacturing; the Embodied Intelligence Full-Chain Leap Initiative accelerates the R&D and industrialization of core technologies for humanoid robots; and the “Challenge-Based Recruitment” list for the Top 10 Demonstration Applications focuses precisely on key scenarios including multilingual intelligent translation and AI-native high-throughput laboratories, driving AI from technological breakthroughs to industrial empowerment.
On the ecosystem construction front: The launch of the four AI innovation blocks stands out as a highlight. Haidian Origin Community aims to become the world’s premier hub for AI talent innovation and entrepreneurship; Chaoyang Optical-Intelligent Space focuses on next-generation computing; Shijingshan Cultural Intelligence Sphere fosters an “AI + Culture” cluster; and ETDZ Digital-Modular World builds an integrated R&D and manufacturing closed loop. Together, they form a vibrant, innovation-driven ecosystem through the aggregation of key elements.
Toward “Global No.1 AI City”: Shaping the Future of China’s AI Industry
The implementation of Beijing’s Action Plan for Building an AI Innovation Highland represents not only a comprehensive layout for technological breakthroughs and industrial development, but also an in-depth shaping of the future AI ecosystem. Through the coordinated advancement of the nine initiatives and the innovation blocks, Beijing is accelerating its march toward becoming the “Global No.1 AI City”, contributing greater strength to the development of China’s AI industry and setting a new benchmark for global AI innovation.
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