en.Wedoany.com Reported - Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced that the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance will be held in Shanghai from July 17 to 20. Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony and deliver a keynote speech. Themed "Intelligent Partners, Co-Creating the Future," the conference will focus on exchanges regarding AI technology development, industrial applications, infrastructure construction, and global governance. Conference and exhibition activities will be distributed across three areas: Expo, Zhangjiang, and West Bund.
The conference is co-hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the China Association for Science and Technology, and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government. The conference will feature six sections: forums and meetings, exhibitions and displays, awards and competitions, application experiences, innovation incubation, and talent recruitment. It plans to hold over 140 forums, invite more than 1,400 Chinese and international guests, and engage national ministries, key national laboratories, and international organizations. The High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance will be a key component of the conference, with high-level representatives from dozens of countries and international organizations exchanging views on topics such as technological innovation, development gaps, security risks, governance rules, and capacity building.
Unlike conferences that solely discuss algorithms and models, this edition will focus on showcasing the practical progress of AI from foundational technologies into computing infrastructure, industrial systems, and urban applications. The total exhibition area exceeds 100,000 square meters, with over 1,100 enterprises displaying more than 3,000 products and solutions, including intelligent computing supernodes, multimodal large models, agent operating systems, near-memory computing chips, AI terminals, humanoid robots, and dexterous hands. Over 300 products are planned to debut during the conference. The intelligent computing and embodied intelligence tracks each gather more than 200 enterprises, reflecting that the focus of AI industry construction is shifting towards large-scale computing power organization, software-hardware collaboration, terminal deployment, and real-world scenario operations.
Computing power infrastructure will be a key entry point for observing the technical roadmap of this conference. As the scale of large model training and inference expands, the performance of a single chip can no longer independently determine system capability. Interconnection of computing cards, server clusters, memory and storage, data transmission, power supply and distribution, and cooling facilities must form a complete engineering system. The conference will showcase large-scale intelligent computing supernodes and related infrastructure products. Enterprises will also introduce new solutions for model deployment, inference efficiency, agent operation, and industry data processing. After such technologies move from exhibition booths to data centers, enterprise server rooms, and production sites, they still require equipment installation, network access, platform adaptation, data governance, system testing, and long-term operation and maintenance. Consequently, competition in AI products is shifting from individual model metrics to the construction and operational capabilities of entire systems.
The conference will also host its first high-level international academic conference, "WAIC Academic," organized with participation from Turing Award winners and Chinese and foreign academicians. The academic sessions are scheduled from July 18 to 20. The academic conference has received 284 submissions from multiple countries and regions, aiming to connect basic research, engineering development, and industrial applications, providing a technical exchange platform for directions such as large models, agents, embodied intelligence, and AI safety.
Global AI governance will proceed in parallel with industry exhibitions. China has previously proposed the "Global AI Governance Initiative" and advocates narrowing the gaps in computing power, data, talent, and application capabilities among different countries through international cooperation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that this conference will invite representatives from various countries and international organizations to discuss frontier issues in AI development and governance. Through arrangements such as collective exhibition tours, participants will learn about China's AI technology and industrial applications. The conference will place technology showcases, industrial collaboration, and governance discussions on the same platform, enabling safety rules, technical standards, and inclusive applications to form a more direct connection with models, computing power, and infrastructure construction.
Shanghai has established service systems around the conference, including innovation incubation, industry matchmaking, youth innovation, and international cooperation, and has launched the "Hi WAIC" platform. Preparatory information for the conference indicates that Shanghai has formed an AI industry ecosystem covering independent innovation, application scenarios, open cooperation, and safety governance. Related activities will continue to demonstrate the deployment of AI in industry, urban management, public services, and digital infrastructure. As the opening date approaches, forum agendas, debut products, intelligent computing equipment, and application projects will gradually enter a concentrated release phase.
