China's generative AI landscape surpasses 700 million users, computing power surges 177%

At the 7th China Internet Infrastructure Conference, the China Internet Network Information Center unveiled the 'Report on the Development of Generative AI Applications (2026).' As of the first half of 2026, China's generative AI user base surpassed 700 million, with a penetration rate exceeding 50%. Intelligent Q&A is the most popular use case, adopted by 76% of users, while image and video processing, text processing, and meeting minutes are used by 47.8%, 37.6%, and 32.5% of users, respectively. AI assistant and office application usage more than doubled compared to the previous year. China's computing power reached 2,185 EFLOPS by June 2026, a 177% increase from the previous year. The first domestically produced 100,000-card AI super cluster was operational, with full-stack independence from chips to cooling systems. DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and others launched multiple trillion-parameter open-source large models, dominating the top six positions on the global mainstream calling list. Over 120,000 high-quality data sets were accumulated. In manufacturing, AI adoption exceeded 30%, and agriculture saw models like 'Shennong,' 'Guyu,' and 'Fanli.' The report noted 1,255 AI investment deals in the first half of 2026, totaling 250.14 billion yuan, a 1.82-fold increase from the previous year. The report concludes that China has established a globally leading AI industry ecosystem, with policy focus shifting from rapid development to implementation and governance.