China's Core AI Industry Exceeds 1.2 Trillion Yuan; 6,200+ AI Enterprises Nationwide

Xinhua reported that China's core AI industry value exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan (~$174 billion) at end-2025, with more than 6,200 AI enterprises operating nationwide. The 15th Five-Year Plan's 2026 implementation guidelines direct a push to deepen AI integration into traditional manufacturing sectors and SMEs — identifying production-line deployment as the key lagging area. China's AI market is forecast to exceed 1.73 trillion yuan by 2028. The Xiong'an 'AI+' Industry Forum (April 1) unveiled R&D incentives and GPU cluster subsidies to accelerate the AI-industrial integration. China targets the digital economy reaching 12.5% of GDP by 2030. The figures position China as the world's second-largest AI market by industry value; the US maintains a significant lead in frontier model investment at $109.1 billion private AI investment in 2024 versus China's $9.3 billion.