Opening Remarks: Building a "City of Whole-Domain Artificial Intelligence" | 2026 AI Partner · Beijing Yizhuang AI+ Industrial Conference

TL;DR

• Beijing Yizhuang (Economic Technological Development Zone) launched a "Full-Domain AI City" initiative to shift AI from consumer-facing hype to industrial applications in manufacturing, healthcare, and autonomous driving.
• The district plans to aggregate 1,000 AI core enterprises and land 100 vertical-specific model scenarios by the end of 2027.
• Yizhuang has established a public computing power platform of 5,000 PetaFlops, with a long-term plan to expand to over 50,000 PetaFlops.
• The initiative covers four strategic pillars: full-chain industrial layout, cross-industry empowerment, full-scenario urban application, and full-factor resource supply.
• Over 300 humanoid robots have been deployed in real-world street scenarios, including a recent half-marathon event, to validate technologies in actual urban environments rather than labs.

Why It Matters

This move represents a significant shift in China's AI strategy from theoretical research to large-scale, city-level practical deployment, offering a comprehensive testing ground for B2B AI solutions. For practitioners and researchers, it highlights the emerging infrastructure of "city as a testbed," where access to compute, data, and real-world validation sites is becoming as critical as the algorithms themselves. The initiative also underscores the growing importance of embodied AI and vertical domain models in driving tangible industrial productivity.

Key Data

• Annual Subsidy: 300 million RMB is distributed annually in the form of computing power, data, and model vouchers.
• Computing Infrastructure: A public computing platform of 5,000 PetaFlops (P) has been built, which is the largest in the city; future plans target over 50,000 P.
• Industrial Scale: The district's AI industrial scale has surpassed 80 billion RMB, with more than 600 core AI enterprises already aggregated.
• Future Targets: By the end of 2027, the goal is to have 1,000 core AI enterprises, 100 vertical model deployments, and 10,000 active developers/super individuals.
• Geographic Contribution: Yizhuang occupies only 1.37% of Beijing's total land area but contributes approximately 40% of the city's industrial value-added.

Technical Details

• Integrated Infrastructure: The strategy includes building a "National Large Model Evaluation Center" and international open-source communities to support software and hardware adaptation. The district is also exploring the integration of AI with 6G communication and quantum technologies, with plans to extend ground-based computing to space-based computing.
• Embodied AI Deployment: The initiative emphasizes "full-scenario" application, including the operation of autonomous driving demonstrations in a 600-square-kilometer zone and the deployment of over 300 humanoid robots in public spaces. A "smart health and elderly care robot station" has already been enabled, utilizing 40 types of robots for tasks such as meal delivery and mobility assistance.
• Vertical Industry Integration: AI is being fused with specific sectors: optimizing design and simulation for commercial rockets (where 75% of national commercial rocket companies are located in Yizhuang), accelerating drug discovery in the BioPark (which houses nearly 5,000 pharmaceutical companies), and enhancing automotive manufacturing.
• Developer Ecosystem: The district has established the "Mo Shu World" community and an "OPC" (One Person Company) community, designed to support individual developers and "super individuals." It features a rapid registration service for AI-focused entities, allowing for company establishment in as little as thirty minutes.

Industry Insight

• City-Level Validation Infrastructure: The model of using an entire city as an "AI testbed and amplifier" is becoming a key competitive advantage for industrial hubs. Access to real-world scenario data and deployment is moving from a nice-to-have to a core requirement for scaling B2B AI products.
• Verticalization Over Generalization: The focus on 100 specific vertical scenarios by 2027 indicates that the next phase of AI value creation will not be in general-purpose foundation models, but in domain-specific optimizations for healthcare, manufacturing, and aerospace.
• Resource Allocation via Vouchers: The use of government-subsidized "compute and data vouchers" lowers the barrier to entry for startups, suggesting that in high-cost infrastructure sectors, public-private partnerships will continue to play a pivotal role in scaling AI adoption.

zhuang is treated as an experimental and deployment field for artificial intelligence, integrating AI into all levels of urban operations including transportation, healthcare, government services, and manufacturing.

Q: What are the specific goals for 2027?
A: The district aims to focus on 1,000 core AI enterprises, drive the practical deployment of 100 vertical model scenarios, attract 10,000 active developers or "super individuals," and create more than 10 benchmark smart scenario complexes.