East China's Hangzhou unveils plan to build AI innovation hub

HANGZHOU, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The eastern Chinese tech city of Hangzhou, home to AI startup DeepSeek and humanoid robotics firm Unitree Robotics, has recently unveiled its 2025 action plan to further elevate its status as an AI innovation center.

According to the plan, by the end of this year, Hangzhou aims to expand its intelligent computing power from 25 to 50 EFLOPS, cultivate two world-class AI foundation models and more than 25 industry-specific large models, and raise the annual revenue of its core AI industry to over 390 billion yuan (about 54.43 billion U.S. dollars).

The city is also seeking to achieve major technological breakthroughs in terms of AI chips and further promote the application of AI in various fields such as manufacturing, healthcare, finance, transportation, education, science and governance.

To achieve these ambitions, Hangzhou has introduced a 1-billion-yuan computing power voucher program spanning four years to help local firms access computing resources at lower costs. This program will offer subsidies to cover up to 60 percent of the costs of firms in purchasing computing power and models for AI development.

The city has also pledged in the action plan to offer subsidies to attract global AI talent and incentivize innovation.

Hangzhou, capital of the economic powerhouse Zhejiang Province, has emerged as a leading AI hub in China's tech landscape. By 2024, the city had hosted more than 500 AI companies, whose combined profits last year accounted for over 70 percent of Zhejiang's provincial total, an industry report showed. ■