Shanghai Unveils USD1.4 Billion AI Application Expansion Support Plan to Boost AI Ecosystem

Shanghai has unveiled a comprehensive support package of 12 measures to expand artificial intelligence applications and reduce innovation and entrepreneurship costs, featuring subsidies worth CNY10 billion (USD1.4 billion).

The city announced the Several Measures for Further Expanding AI Applications in Shanghai plan at the closing ceremony of the three-day 2025 World AI Conference yesterday. The measures cover the entire value chain from computing power and models to data, industrial ecosystems, talent services, and investment and financing.

The initiative includes CNY6 billion (USD835.9 million) to strengthen computing power scheduling platform building and provide up to 30 percent rent subsidies for entities using intelligent computing power, CNY3 billion to support firms deploying or utilizing third-party large language models, offering grants covering up to 50 percent of verified contracts that are capped at CNY5 million (USD696,590) per project to promote vertical applications of AI models, and CNY1 billion to support the procurement of high-quality training datasets.

Shanghai will establish an AI town to create high-density, low-cost AI industrial clusters, providing qualified talent and entrepreneurial teams with lower rents or one-time startup funding ranging from six months to three years. It will support technological innovation in key frontier areas, including AI fundamental theory, methods, and tools, next-generation artificial general intelligence, smart chips, embodied intelligence, intelligent software, brain-computer interfaces, and intelligent computing systems, providing up to 30 percent of verified project investment, with a CNY50 million (USD7 million) cap per project.

Shanghai homed 394 large-sized AI companies as of March 31, with their combined profit surging 65 percent from a year earlier on revenue jumping 29 percent to over CNY118 billion (USD16.4 billion), according to data from the local Commission of Economy and Informatization. The city's AI talent pool accounted for nearly one-third of China's total.

In addition, Shanghai launched the AI Corporate Venture Capital fund with an initial scale of CNY3 billion during the WAIC's closing ceremony, focusing on the three key elements of models, data corpus, and computing power.