Beijing has emerged as China’s leading city for the development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) models, with the highest number of registered large-scale AI systems nationwide, Mayor Yin Yong said on Sunday.
Delivering a government work report at the annual session of the Beijing Municipal People’s Congress, Yin said the capital has “consistently ranked first in the country” in terms of both the registration and launch of large AI models. He attributed this performance to Beijing’s rapidly maturing core AI ecosystem and strong policy support for innovation.
According to Yin, the city has made notable progress in building pilot application bases that integrate AI into key sectors such as healthcare, advanced manufacturing and scientific research. These initiatives, he said, are accelerating the transition of AI from laboratory research to real-world industrial and social applications, reinforcing Beijing’s position as a national innovation hub.
The report also highlighted the broader growth of the city’s digital economy. In 2025, the added value of Beijing’s digital economy rose 8.7 percent year on year, reflecting steady expansion across data services, intelligent manufacturing and digital infrastructure.
Further details were outlined in the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry White Paper (2025), released by the municipal science and technology commission on Nov 29, 2025. The white paper noted that Beijing is home to more than 2,500 AI enterprises and has registered 183 large AI models, the highest total among all Chinese cities.
Preliminary estimates in the report suggest that Beijing’s total AI industry scale exceeded 450 billion yuan (about $64.6 billion) for the full year 2025. Growth has been particularly strong in the core AI sector, which expanded by 25.3 percent year on year in the first half of 2025 to reach 215.2 billion yuan.
Beijing-based technology companies have played a central role in this expansion. Commercial AI models developed by firms such as Baidu, ByteDance, Zhipu AI and Moonshot AI have gained widespread adoption. Products including Baidu’s Ernie, ByteDance’s Doubao, Zhipu AI’s GLM and Moonshot AI’s Kimi have demonstrated performance levels comparable to leading international AI models, according to the white paper.
City officials said Beijing will continue to strengthen policy support, computing infrastructure and talent development to sustain AI innovation and maintain its leading position in China’s rapidly evolving AI landscape.
