Beijing targets $142.5 billion core AI industry in two years
Beijing released a new action plan that targets expanding the city’s core artificial intelligence (AI) industry beyond 1 trillion yuan (about $142.5 billion) within two years. The plan, unveiled this week, lays out nine initiatives aimed at multiple segments of the AI industry, with a focus on technological innovation.
The plan prioritizes coordinated research aimed at technological breakthroughs, steps to increase the supply of high-quality data, and measures to expand AI applications across sectors. It is structured around accelerating Beijing’s development as an AI innovation hub and scaling the city’s AI industrial base over the two-year window.
Additional measures in the plan include attracting top talent, mobilizing long-term capital, and supporting open-source ecosystems.
Targets listed in the plan include building a domestically produced AI computing cluster with capacity exceeding 100,000 chips. The plan also sets goals to add more than 10 newly listed AI-related companies and to cultivate more than 20 unicorn companies in the sector.
The action plan follows several years of policy emphasis on innovation. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), China described innovation as central to modernization efforts and linked AI development to a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, and finance.
Separate sector data also points to growth in the number of AI businesses. The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) reported that the number of AI enterprises in China exceeded 5,300 as of September 2025, accounting for about 15% of the global total.
The Beijing plan frames the two-year market-size target alongside measures that cover research, data, open-source development, capital formation, and the scaling of AI firms.
