Skip to main content

China's AI Boom: 700 Million Users and Counting

China's Generative AI Explosion

China's generative AI landscape just hit a major milestone. According to a report released at the 7th China Internet Infrastructure Conference by the China Internet Network Information Center, more than 700 million people in China are now using generative AI, pushing the penetration rate past 50%. In other words, one out of every two adults in the country is tapping into AI tools.

How Are People Using It?

Smart Q&A remains the go-to feature, with 76% of users turning to AI for answers. Image and video processing follow at 47.8%, while text processing and writing summaries are used by 37.6% and 32.5% respectively. What's striking is the stickiness: usage of AI comprehensive assistants and efficiency office apps has more than doubled compared to last year.

Computing Power Soars

Under the hood, China's infrastructure is revving up. As of June, the country's smart computing power reached 2,185 EFLOPS, a whopping 177% year-on-year increase. The first domestically produced 100,000-card AI supercluster is now operational, fully independent from chips to cooling systems. On the model front, Chinese teams like DeepSeek and Moonshot AI have launched multiple trillion-parameter open-source models, dominating the top six spots on global call lists. Over 120,000 high-quality datasets have been accumulated.

Robots and Real-World Applications

Embodied intelligence is particularly buzzing. More than 400 humanoid robot models were launched in the first half of the year, with annual production expected to exceed 100,000 units. AI adoption in manufacturing has surpassed 30%, and agriculture is getting smarter with large models like "Shennong," "Guyu," and "Fanli."

Capital Floods In

Investors are pouring money into the sector. In the first half of the year, there were 1,255 AI investment and financing deals, with disclosed amounts totaling about 250.14 billion yuan—that's 1.82 times the entire previous year's total.

The report concludes that China has built a globally leading AI industry ecosystem. Now, the policy focus is shifting from "rushing to develop" to balancing implementation and governance.

Key Points

  • 700 million+ generative AI users in China, penetration rate over 50%.
  • Smart Q&A is the top use case (76%), followed by image/video and text processing.
  • Computing power hit 2,185 EFLOPS, up 177% year-on-year.
  • 400+ humanoid robot models launched; manufacturing AI adoption over 30%.
  • AI investment reached 250.14 billion yuan in H1, 1.82x the previous year's total.