China’s core artificial intelligence (AI) industry reached a value of more than 1.2 trillion yuan (about 173.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 2025, emerging as a major driver of high-quality economic development, a senior official said Thursday.
Li Lecheng, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, made the remarks on the sidelines of the annual session of China’s national legislature.
Li said the number of AI-related companies in China exceeded 6,200 last year. AI technologies are increasingly being applied in factories and daily life across the country.
By the end of 2025, more than 30 percent of manufacturing enterprises with annual revenues of at least 20 million yuan had adopted AI technologies. Chinese companies have also released over 300 humanoid robot products, according to the minister.
He added that China-developed AI models are gaining global attention, noting that the country ranked first worldwide in downloads of open-source AI models over the past year.
AI was prominently featured in this year’s government work report, submitted to the fourth session of the National People’s Congress for deliberation.
According to the report, China plans to foster new forms of a smart economy in 2026, including encouraging large-scale commercial AI applications in key sectors, launching new infrastructure projects such as hyper-scale intelligent computing clusters, and accelerating the development of satellite internet.
