China's artificial intelligence (AI) industry has shown rapid growth so far this year, with that of the core AI industry expected to top a record one trillion yuan (about 141.75 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of 2025, according to China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT). Data from CAICT indicate that there has been a significant increase in the application of large AI models in the manufacturing sector since the beginning of this year, with the proportion of use cases rising from 19.9 percent last year to 25.9 percent this year, which drives a rapid growth in the AI industry as a whole. "In 2024, the scale of China's core AI industry exceeded 900 billion yuan, with the annual growth rate reaching 24 percent. In 2025, this figure is expected to exceed 1.2 trillion yuan with further acceleration in growth," said Wei Kai, head of the AI research institute at CAICT. To promote the application of AI in specific sectors, China has introduced its first high-performance training and inference service standards in the industry. "Currently, training and reasoning represent major scenarios for the AI industry, especially when the technology is used in a coordinated manner. These standards aim to enhance professional governance and raise the efficiency of resources utilization," said Chen Zhifeng, director of the cloud computing research department at China Electronics Standardization Institute. On the consumer front, the smart economy has been fostering new consumption scenarios and upgrading consumption structures. According to big data, in the first ten months of the year, the sales of AI-driven products such as smart glasses and smartwatches grew by 23.1 percent, playing a significant role in boosting consumption and stimulating economic growth. "Establishing a public service platform for large AI models can effectively promote the open sharing of model data algorithms. The value added of China's 'Three New' Economy -- a collection of economic activities with new industries, new business formats, and new business models -- has surpassed 24 trillion yuan," said Zhang Yunming, Chinese Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology.
China's AI industry scale set to hit 1 trln yuan in 2025
Highlighting the "Future Energy" as a key direction for China's strategic emerging industries, the country's nuclear energy development, guided by its three-step strategy, has seen major strides in the past year, said a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
In a recent press briefing, Xin Feng, also deputy general manager of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), updated the media on the progresses China has achieved under the strategy.
"China's three-step strategy for nuclear energy development -- from the thermal reactor to the fast reactor and the fusion reactor -- was formulated in 1983 as a medium- and long-term plan. For the thermal reactor, over the past year, our 2.0 version of the Hualong One technology has been approved. This is a unified and fully self-owned intellectual property based third-generation nuclear power technology solution. And the Linglong One small modular reactor also successfully completed its cold-state functional test last year and is expected to be put into commercial operation this year," he said.
For the second and third steps, Chinese researchers and engineers have achieved milestones in the past year with the government support, Xin noted.
"Then for the fast reactor, last year, a closed-cycle system for an integral fast reactor successfully achieved preliminary standard design. We will continue to solve its engineering technology challenges. As for the fusion reactor, in 2025, with national support, we established the China Fusion Energy Company in Shanghai. And our Huanliu-3, a platform for conducting research and development of fusion technology, made a big stride, with an iron temperature in it achieving 117 million Celsius and an electron temperature reaching 160 million Celsius. We will continue to adhere to the development strategy and focus on technological research and engineering technology development," Xin said.
The fourth session of the 14th NPC and the fourth session of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC kicked off in Beijing on March 5 and March 4, respectively.
The "two sessions" -- which refer to the annual meetings of China's supreme organ of state power, the National People's Congress (NPC), and its top political advisory body, the National Committee of the CPPCC -- are a key event on the country's political calendar and offer a window into the country's development direction.
China's nuclear energy development makes great strides with three-step strategy: CPPCC member
