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When DeepSeek exploded On the world stage in January 2025, it seemed to appear out of nowhere. But the grand linguistic model was just one of thousands Generative artificial intelligence Tools released in China since 2023, and there’s a public archive for each one.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the country’s top internet regulatory body, requires that any company launching an AI tool with “the characteristics of public opinion or social mobilization capabilities” first register it in a public database: the algorithm registry. In the submission, developers must explain how their products avoid 31 categories of risks, from age and gender discrimination to psychological harm to “violation of basic socialist values.”
Applicants submit their applications to the local CAC (e.g., Shanghai CAC for companies registered in Shanghai), which forwards the applications to the central CAC for final approval. Only then is the tool publicly listed in the algorithm’s registry. While the European Union seeks to issue a single, comprehensive AI law, notes Matt Sheehan, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, China’s approach to regulation is more ad hoc, targeting specific algorithms and building redundant standards. (The United States does not have a similar registration system or central regulatory body.)
Over time, the CAC has inadvertently created the most detailed map of a country’s AI ecosystem anywhere in the world.
*Data current as of April 2025, includes both Generative AI and Deep Synthesis algorithms
Open the CAC update from August 2024 and you’ll find DeepSeek listed as entry 152, a single row in an ordered table. Scroll through the table and you’ll find the AI that manages homestays and the AI that manages homestays Patent drafts. One assists obstetricians and gynecologists in a maternity ward in Shanghai; Another helps manage the state’s electricity networks. Kendra Schafer She and her colleagues at Trivium China, a Beijing-based political consulting firm, have been compiling CAC updates into a comprehensive database, supplemented by their own research.
A broad vision of prosperity
Nearly 80% of China’s generative AI registrations are clustered in and around major technology hubs – Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Hangzhou. Each city has its strengths: Beijing Elite universities, national laboratories, and political power give them an advantage in large-scale innovation; Shenzhen (in Guangdong) is home to a dense hardware supply chain and a large engineering talent pool; Shanghai, close to multinational companies, excels at marketing; The city of Hangzhou (in Zhejiang Province) is fueled by Alibaba’s e-commerce empire.
But innovation is spreading far beyond the coasts. Chongqing is positioning itself as an AI manufacturing and logistics node; Huge government investment has helped Hefei, in Anhui province, become known as “China’s Speech Valley” due to its array of speech recognition companies, including iFlyTek. The deposits are also originating in less obvious areas such as Guizhou, China’s “Big Data Valley,” where massive data centers power Huawei’s Pangu model, and Inner Mongolia, where state companies are integrating artificial intelligence into mining and agriculture.
*Data current as of April 2025
In the Trivium dataset, state-linked listings – from state-owned enterprises to government-backed research institutes – make up 22% of filings. Many state-linked companies are collaborating with major technology companies to build their own artificial intelligence: for example, PetroChina, cooperated with Huawei and iFlyTech to create oil and gas applications; State network I used DeepSeek To build a power grid optimization model.
Foreign companies account for only 0.5% of filings. IKEA, for example, has an intelligent shopper algorithm that makes product recommendations. Yum China, the parent company that operates KFC in China, has incorporated a model that creates menus and promotional materials.
Focus on competition
*Data current as of April 2025
More than half of the listings in the algorithmic registry are devoted to what Schiffer calls cross-sectional techniques. These range from basic templates to “general-purpose” text generators to a wide range of multimedia tools – audio changers, 3D renderers, image makers. “No one wants to find themselves in a situation where they depend on a competitor’s technology,” Schaefer says. Unlike the United States, where OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind dominate the market, the Chinese competition for building foundational AI remains diverse and contested. But building these models is expensive, and the market is starting to consolidate. “China Six”Artificial intelligence tigers“—Moonshot, Minimax, Zhipu, Baichuan, 0.1AI, and Stepfun — all backed by Alibaba or Tencent. ByteDance’s Doubao has overtaken DeepSeek as the most popular chatbot in China, but its place at the top is not guaranteed.
Indigenous niche
While the giants are vying for supremacy in chatbots, startups are hard at work in every sector imaginable.
Squirrel Ai Squirrel
Founder Derek Lee says his 12-year-old company is outpacing the edtech competition. They are “putting wheels on the horse,” he says, and installing AI into their existing legacy software. Squirrel claims to be able to diagnose knowledge gaps, measure progress, and adjust lessons in real time.
When China banned for-profit tutoring in 2021, the company’s revenues collapsed overnight. He – she Centered to license its platform to franchisees who also sold the company’s AI-powered tablets. The squirrel network includes more than 3000 centers Across China, serving 1.2 million students. Now the company is looking to expand into the United States.
me who His sons withdrew From a private school in Shanghai so they can teach at home on the Squirrel platform, he says that “in the future, teachers will not teach knowledge.” Instead, he says, “they will become data analysts, understanding students’ learning reports and abilities, and psychologists, understanding emotions and shaping their personalities.”
AI Kanshe’s tongue
AI Kanshe (which translates as “AI Sees Tongue”) is a traditional Chinese medicine startup that analyzes health through images of the tongue, palms, and face. The company was founded by Li Wenhua, a former employee of Yaoshi Bang, one of the oldest online pharmaceutical platforms in China. Li was a long-time student of tongue and hand diagnosis, and wanted to combine the diagnostic methods of traditional Chinese medicine with modern machine vision. The company serves consumers and health practitioners across clinics, pharmacies and some hospitals, providing tools to support diagnosis and decision-making. His model was trained on more than 100,000 annotated images of tongues, hands, and faces.
Zhongtan Puhui Cloud Technology Zhongtan Puhui Cloud Technology
Founded in 2024 by Wu Song, a former quantitative trader on Wall Street, Zhongtan Puhui Cloud Technology develops AI-based tools for carbon accounting. Wu says the green transition still relies on cumbersome human labor that can be automated.
Zhongtan Puhui builds AI agents that handle a number of carbon accounting tasks, including carbon footprint and emissions auditing. Its clients range from China Minmetals Group and DHL to small and medium-sized exporters in the Yangtze River Delta.