SHANGHAI, CHINA – JULY 17: Chinese President Xi Jinping waves as he arrives for the opening ceremony of the World AI Conference on July 17, 2026 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Ng Han Guan-Pool/Getty Images)
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Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday positioned China as an artificial intelligence partner for the global South, saying countries should come together to build AI and also help developing countries.
At the World AI Conference in Shanghai, Xi announced that China will provide 5,000 opportunities for AI training and seminar programs to developing countries and 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 measures and a longer-term vision,” a Google translation of his speech said in Mandarin.
Xi said AI development should not be a “solo effort” of a single country but a “symphony of international cooperation” and China is “willing to be more open, take more practical measures and take a more visionary perspective.”
The remarks come a day after 29 countries signed an agreement in Shanghai to establish the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO), which will be headquartered in the city, according to Chinese state media outlet Xinhua.
Xi also urged increasing risk awareness and ensuring that AI is “safe and controllable” and “always remains under human control,” adding that countries should resist “overstretching the national security concept in the field of AI or prioritizing the security of one country over that of others.”
While the Chinese president did not name a specific country, the US has introduced various export control measures aimed at restricting China’s access to high-end technology. The U.S. began tightening restrictions during President Donald Trump’s first term, including adding Huawei to the Commerce Department’s Entity List in 2019.
The Biden administration later imposed export controls in 2022 to limit China’s ability to buy advanced computer chips and make advanced semiconductors, citing national security risks.
Chip giant Nvidia has seen its market share in China plummet and said in its annual report that it was unable to develop and deliver a competitive product for the Chinese data center market that would be recognized by both Beijing and Washington.
“As of the end of fiscal year 2026, we were effectively excluded from competition in the Chinese data center computing/computing market, and our effective isolation from the Chinese market has helped our competitors build larger developer and customer ecosystems to challenge us globally,” it added.
At the event, Chinese tech heavyweight Huawei unveiled its Atlas 950 SuperPoD supernode, which is designed to connect multiple chips together to boost computing power. The company said it meets the computing power needs of building large data centers and training large models.
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https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/17/x-china-ai-summit-risks-security.html
