Chinese President Xi Jinping used the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai to promote China’s open-source models, domestic AI infrastructure and governance proposals as an alternative to U.S.-led approaches.
Reuters reported that Xi said China would expand AI training and cooperation with countries in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and the broader Global South. Twenty-nine countries also agreed to establish the China-backed World AI Cooperation Organization, which is intended to coordinate international AI policy and development.
China’s message combines diplomacy with industrial strategy. Beijing is offering lower-cost models, domestic chips and training partnerships to countries that may not have access to the most advanced U.S. systems.
The initiative could deepen the division between competing AI ecosystems. The U.S. remains dominant in frontier models and chips, but China is trying to shape the standards, alliances and markets through which AI spreads globally.