"Surging Rapidly"... China's AI Industry Surpasses 135 Trillion Won, High Growth Expected

China's AI Industry Surpasses 135 Trillion Won
"Annual Growth Rate Exceeds 20%"

Chinese authorities announced that the scale of China's artificial intelligence (AI) industry surpassed 135 trillion won last year and that it is expected to maintain a high annual growth rate of over 20%.

China's artificial intelligence (AI) industry surpassed 135 trillion won last year, and Chinese authorities announced that it will maintain a high growth rate of over 20% annually. Photo by Getty Images

According to state-run media such as China Central Television (CCTV) on July 22, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) stated in a recent report that China's AI industry exceeded 700 billion yuan (approximately 135 trillion won) last year and is expected to maintain a growth rate of over 20% for the next several years. The report noted, "Domestic AI products have made progress in areas such as large-scale parameters in the hundreds of billions and multimodal capabilities, and have been deeply integrated into fields such as office work, education, industrial design, and content creation, thereby building a smart ecosystem across various sectors."

Additionally, the report explained that the number of internet users in China reached 1.123 billion, resulting in an internet penetration rate of 79.7%. Among these, the number of users aged 60 and above was 161 million, and the number of rural users was 322 million, both showing a stable upward trend. The internet penetration rate among the elderly was recorded at 52.0%, while the rural internet penetration rate was 69.2%.

According to CNNIC, as of March this year, there were a total of 346 generative AI services registered with China's cyber authorities. As of June this year, the number of domains in China was 32.62 million, of which 20.85 million were China's national domains (.cn).

Furthermore, as of June, there were 4.55 million fifth-generation mobile communication (5G) base stations in China. The report stated that, as a result of the "broadband internet in every village and 5G access in every township" initiative implemented over the past ten years, the proportion of administrative villages with 5G access has surpassed 90%. It also added that mobile user traffic has recorded double-digit growth rates for six consecutive months.