SHANGHAI, CHINA – JULY 17: Chinese President Xi Jinping waves as he arrives at the opening ceremony of the World AI Conference on July 17, 2026 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Ng Han Guanpour/Getty Images)
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Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday positioned China as the global South’s artificial intelligence partner, saying countries should come together to build AI and help developing countries as well.
Speaking at the World AI Conference in Shanghai, President Xi announced that China will provide 5,000 opportunities for AI training and seminar programs to developing countries, as well as develop AI cooperation with various blocs, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the League of Arab States, and the African Union.
“China stands ready to work with all parties to seize and address the opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence development, with a more open attitude, more pragmatic actions and a long-term vision,” he said, according to a Google translation of his speech in Mandarin.
Xi said AI development should be a “symphony of international cooperation” rather than a “solo performance” by one country, and that China is “ready to be more open, take more pragmatic action, and have a more forward-looking perspective.”
The remarks came a day after 29 countries signed an agreement to establish the Shanghai-based World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO), according to Chinese state media Xinhua News Agency.
Xi also urged strengthening risk awareness and ensuring that AI is “safe and controllable” and “always under human control,” adding that countries should oppose “overextending the concept of national security in the AI field or prioritizing one country’s security over another’s.”
Although the Chinese president did not mention specific countries, the United States has implemented various export control measures aimed at restricting access to China’s high-end technology. The United States began tightening regulations during President Donald Trump’s first term, placing Huawei on the Commerce Department’s Entity List in 2019.
The Biden administration then introduced export controls in 2022 that would limit China’s ability to purchase advanced computing chips and manufacture advanced semiconductors, citing national security risks.
chip giant Nvidia said in its annual report that its market share in China has plummeted and it has been unable to develop and offer competitive products for the Chinese data center market that would be approved by both Beijing and Washington.
“As of the end of fiscal year 2026, we were effectively foreclosed from competition in the Chinese data center computing/computing market, and our de facto foreclosure from the Chinese market has allowed our competitors to build larger developer and customer ecosystems and challenge us around the world,” it added.
At the event, Chinese tech giant Huawei showcased the Atlas 950 SuperPoD, a supernode designed to link multiple chips together to increase computing power. The company said it will address the computing power needs of building large data centers and training large models.
