Substantial investments have been made to support China’s AI boom, and the government’s ‘grand steering’ approach, which combines industrial policy with strong state direction as an economic driver, has paved the way for subsidies to support national artificial intelligence initiatives.
Recently, the Shanghai municipal government introduced CNY 900 million ($127 million) in subsidies to support access to computing clusters, AI models, and model-training data. Additional subsidies of up to CNY 500 million ($71 million) have also been made available over three to five years for local companies that develop innovations in AI.
China is adopting a similar emphasis towards AI as its highly successful initiatives on green tech in recent years, and early adoption rates for domestic artificial intelligence models place the Asian powerhouse in a strong position to shape the future of the technology.
Driving Global AI Adoption
While China’s leading artificial intelligence models still lag behind the United States in terms of power, their far cheaper costs are encouraging higher adoption rates.
Despite operating at around 90% of the capacity of their US counterparts, there's an emphasis on efficient architectures that have reduced usage costs. It’s these cost-efficient innovations that have led to firms like DeepSeek cutting their API prices by as much as 62%.
In terms of cumulative downloads by developers, Chinese models have recently begun to overtake their US counterparts, with Alibaba’s Qwen recording 385.3 million downloads against the 346.2 million posted by Meta Platforms’ Llama in October 2025.
This transformation has been breathtaking. Back in early 2024, Llama had 10.6 million downloads compared to Qwen’s 500,000. Now, new systems built on Qwen account for more than 40% of new large-language models (LLMs) on the machine learning hub, Hugging Face, dwarfing Meta’s share of 15%.
Seeking to capitalize on this global expansion, China’s AI providers are set to invest $70 billion into data centers next year, with Goldman Sachs analysts estimating power demand to increase by 25% in 2025.
As high-tech firms in China and the United States continue to battle in the lucrative AI race, it appears that global firms are already being won over by the affordability of Asian artificial intelligence models and their scalability.
AI Acceptance is an Opportunity
China is staking a claim to be the world’s most vibrant AI hub, with high levels of investment supporting exceptional volumes of public acceptance.
Domestically, 87% of people in China claimed that they trusted AI, as opposed to 32% in the United States, 67% in Brazil, 36% in the United Kingdom, and 39% in Germany, according to a poll conducted by Edelman.
Tellingly, 54% of Chinese respondents suggested that they embraced the greater use of AI, with only 17% of Americans sharing the same outlook.
This data not only showcases the potential for recruiting a more AI-literate workforce in China but also highlights a far greater market opportunity for businesses introducing AI-powered tools in Asia.
For innovators in the artificial intelligence space, doing business in China with market entry specialists could provide access to a vast pool of skilled workers and considerably stronger growth opportunities.
Government-backed upskilling initiatives have also paved the way for competitive labor costs for high-tech businesses opening up in China. Industry-specific programs designed to boost the employability of job seekers and integrate skills training are building a nation of workers who have a natural understanding of AI.
The government has introduced a series of emerging labor brands, which include AI trainers, among other core industry needs. According to official figures, the initiative has now led to the creation of nearly 2,500 brands, which have supported the employment of almost 100 million citizens.
Employment Uncertainty Persists
Despite positive figures regarding AI adoption in China, there are still mixed feelings about the impact of artificial intelligence domestically. According to a recent survey, just 17% of workers strongly agree that AI will positively influence their job next year, while 33% agree.
Although 22% of workers in China strongly agree that AI will positively impact their job responsibilities in the year ahead, a figure that far surpasses the global average and peers in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, and Singapore, the overall outlook remains mixed.
This suggests that employers looking to do business in China in the midst of its AI boom should maintain a cautious approach when hiring in an industry that’s still inspiring uncertainty among the domestic workforce.
China as an AI Hub
Thanks to significant investment, low-cost AI models, and widespread public acceptance, China is fast emerging as the world’s best artificial intelligence hub, and AI innovators could uncover a major market opportunity by prioritizing expansion to the major Asian economy.
The AI boom is still inspiring optimism and caution among businesses, but China’s emphasis on nurturing the emerging technology should certainly be watched closely by decision-makers.
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