"One-person companies" gain traction in China as AI fuels individual entrepreneurship

A new entrepreneurial model called the "one-person company" (OPC) is taking root across China, where individual founders use artificial intelligence (AI) to manage everything from product development to market launch, easing the burden of rising startup costs and talent shortages.

In east China's Hangzhou, Chen Yunfei illustrates the shift as he built an AI-assisted selfie enhancement app that climbed to the top of China's paid app charts with nothing more than a laptop and a cup of coffee. Despite having no coding skills, he turned an idea into a market success by relying entirely on AI.

"I don't know how to write code. AI generates the complete code for me. I just need to describe my ideas," said Chen.

Chen is part of a growing trend of "super individuals" across China who are turning concepts into market-ready products with minimal human resources but maximum technological support.

Recognizing this shift, local governments are racing to cultivate ecosystems where individual founders can thrive.

In Hangzhou's Shangcheng District, authorities have allocated 100 million yuan (about 14.52 million U.S. dollars) annually to build a dedicated "one-person startup hub", designed to help young entrepreneurs arrive with an idea and leave with a product.

Meanwhile, the Liangzhu Digital Habitat Bay in Hangzhou's Yuhang District has already connected with 700 "super individuals" like Chen and incubated over 80 projects, 90 percent of which operate as one-person ventures.

Further west in Chengdu City of Sichuan Province, government staff assist startups with resource matching. In February, the Tianfu Software Park launched its first One-Person Company Community.

The community recently held its inaugural project review session on which proposals were evaluated on team capability, creativity feasibility, and industry alignment, with tailored support offered to promising ventures.

"It provides centralized professional guidance, including resource matching, distribution partnerships, investment connections, and peer industry exchanges, all concentrated in one place," said Shi Bingcheng, founder of the startup Linggui Studio.

As a designated national pilot zone for next-generation AI innovation, Chengdu's AI industry has already surpassed 140 billion yuan (about 20.33 billion U.S. dollars) in scale, creating a robust foundation for solo entrepreneurs to access cutting-edge tools and infrastructure.

The trend extends far beyond these two cities. Suzhou City in east China's Jiangsu Province has introduced full-cycle startup support services, aiming to nurture over 1,000 one-person companies by 2028.

Shenzhen City in south China's Guangdong Province is leveraging the hardware innovation ecosystem of the Huaqiangbei Electronics Market, the beating heart of global consumer electronics, to foster tech-driven solo ventures.

Qingdao City of Shandong Province, positioning itself as a hub for OPC development in northern China, has rolled out "computing vouchers", "AI model vouchers", and startup loan guarantees to lower barriers for one-person ventures.

To date, more than a dozen Chinese cities have launched targeted initiatives to support one-person companies, each tailoring policies to local AI strengths and industrial priorities.

"One-person companies" gain traction in China as AI fuels individual entrepreneurship

Official data from China and the U.S. have shown that their bilateral economic and trade relations are mutually beneficial and win-win in nature.

Bilateral trade in goods hit nearly 690 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. That's 275 times what it was in 1979, when the two countries first established diplomatic relations. On a daily basis, the 2024 figure gives about 1.9 billion U.S. dollars per day. In other words, just one and a half days already exceeds the entire year of 1979.

Since 2001, U.S. goods exports have grown rapidly. But to China in particular, they have skyrocketed more than three times the growth rate of U.S. exports to the rest of the world. Services trade between China and the U.S. expanded even faster. Twenty-two years on, two-way trade in services grew over seven times.

The world's two largest economies are within each other's top three trading partners. Their trade is highly complementary, as both play to their comparative strengths. In terms of the top five categories of goods in bilateral trade in 2024, it can be seen that what China mainly exports to the U.S. are things for people's daily use, while what the U.S. mainly exports to China are things used to make products for daily use.

This feature is also reflected in goods and services trade. China sells more goods, while the U.S. offers more services.

Besides, the world also needs cooperative trade on both sides of the Pacific. For example, in 2025, more than one out of every two Teslas sold worldwide rolled out of the Shanghai Gigafactory.

A survey by the U.S.-China Business Council shows nearly all of American respondents say their companies cannot remain globally competitive without China operations.

China-US economic, trade ties mutually beneficial, win-win in nature: data