AI competition moves to a new level

Hello, I’m Evelyn. I am writing to you from Beijing. Welcome to the latest edition of The China Connection. This is a concise summary of what I have seen and heard from local companies.

Today, we unravel what’s next for Chinese companies to leverage AI to drive revenue. Multiple executives have told me that large language models like DeepSeek are no longer sufficient. What are they looking for instead?

Just as Chinese AI chatbots similar to ChatGPT appear to be catching up with their American counterparts, a new competition is forming: industry-specific artificial intelligence.

This is something Chinese companies are eyeing as they pursue AI-driven revenue growth. This is a step forward from the broader category of large-scale language models such as DeepSeek.

Alibaba.com, a platform that connects millions of small and medium-sized businesses in the U.S. and Europe with suppliers based in China, is looking to partner with U.S. AI models to handle the legal, financial and transactional aspects of doing business around the world.

said Kuo Zhang, the company’s president. it looks like this alibaba Last week, we launched an AI integration upgrade to our Accio sourcing platform called Accio Work. This allows buyers to search for parts and customized products on the platform. According to Zhang, the tool can also process customs documents autonomously and calculate profit margins for businesses.

This is extremely important in an era of fluctuating tariffs.

Accio already has millions of monthly active users and expects to grow to tens of millions of monthly active users by this time next year, Zhang added.

Partnering with overseas AI to understand each country’s unique legal, financial, and HR regulations will further strengthen the product, enabling individual entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into ready-to-sell products, Zhang said.

Alibaba is not alone in its search for specialized AI with U.S. partners.

Li Renhan, founder of three-year-old startup MagicPen Bio, produces glow-in-the-dark plants to provide eco-friendly lighting. That’s thanks to AI-powered biological research by Chinese agricultural researchers that combines the naturally occurring light of fireflies and fungi with landscape plants.

On the business side, Lee told me that the company plans to enter into local sales partnerships in the US and Middle East this year, and is looking for more US companies to partner with. He expects global revenue to reach 200 million yuan ($28.94 million) this year.

Mr Lee said the start-up is selling its basic technology, which has about 20 patents, rather than exporting fragile plants.

This is an intellectual property trend that China is promoting at a high level. This year’s state-run Zhongguancun Forum, where Mr. Li gave a presentation last week, described its expo pavilion as an international technology trade show for companies to “buy globally” and “sell globally.”

Screens inside the store showed that much of what was being sold was patented.

Even the world of popular humanoid robots is calling for more specialized AI.

Leaders of China’s top robotics startups said at the Zhongguancun Forum on Friday that one of their biggest challenges is training data for real-world scenarios.

Beijing-based startup Linkerbot has begun developing humanoid robots with a focus on hands, and has built an online database that collects all the unique skills that human dexterity allows.

Linkerbot founder and CEO Alex Zhou Yong said in a forum speech on Thursday that the company aims to develop all basic human hand skills within three years. By then, we hope to make the humanoid robot able to assemble its own robot hand and humanoid robot, making the cost of the robot lower than the cost of an iPhone.

The goals of AI research may be lofty, but there are limits to what the world knows about AI. In China, companies are looking to specialize so that their technology can deliver industry-targeted results.

President Trump’s visit in May. The White House announced that US President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Beijing from May 14 to 15 to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The trip was postponed from late March due to the Iran war.

Metamanus trading. More than 100 Manus employees were transferred to Meta’s Singapore office in early March, according to a report from CNBC, suggesting the controversial AI business deal went ahead despite the Chinese government’s blockade.

US executive stationed in China. More than 30 senior executives from American companies attended the state-run China Development Forum in Beijing, with Apple CEO Tim Cook taking the stage immediately after Chinese Premier Li Qiang.

March 31: China Official Purchasing Managers Index for March

April 1st: RatingDog China March Comprehensive Manufacturing PMI

April 3rd: RatingDog China Comprehensive Service PMI for March

April 3rd to 7th: Hong Kong stock market closed for public holidays

April 6: Stock markets in mainland China are closed for Qingming Festival.