Chinese AI companies are teaming up to create an internal ecosystem amid US restrictions

Chinese companies working in the field of artificial intelligence have announced the creation of two new industry alliances. Their goal is to create an internal technology ecosystem that will reduce dependence on foreign technologies and adapt to restrictions on the export of advanced Nvidia chips imposed by the United States.

The announcements were timed to coincide with the World Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Shanghai, which ended on Monday. The event also featured new developments, including Huawei's AI computing system, which, according to experts, can compete with the most advanced Nvidia solutions. More consumer products were also introduced, particularly AI-enabled digital glasses.

The first alliance, called the Model and Chip Innovation Ecosystem Alliance, brings together Chinese developers of large language models (LLMs) and AI chip manufacturers. According to Enflame CEO Zhao Lidong, who is participating in the initiative, it is "an innovative ecosystem that connects the entire technology chain-from chips to models and infrastructure."

Other participants include graphics processing unit (GPU) manufacturers Huawei, Biren and Moore Threads, which are all under US sanctions that restrict access to advanced technologies created using American developments. The alliance was organized by StepFun, an LLM developer.

The second alliance, the Committee on Artificial Intelligence at the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce, aims to " deepen the integration of AI technologies into industrial transformation." It includes such participants as SenseTime (also under US sanctions and changed its focus from facial recognition to LLM), StepFun, MiniMax, as well as chip manufacturers Metax and Iluvatar CoreX.

One of the most discussed products of the conference was Huawei's CloudMatrix 384 system, which uses 384 of the latest 910C chips. According to the research company SemiAnalysis from the USA, the system surpasses Nvidia GB200 NVL72 in a number of indicators.

It is noted that Huawei successfully uses a larger number of chips and innovations at the system architecture level to compensate for the lag in performance of individual chips.

At least six other Chinese companies have also introduced similar solutions based on cluster technologies. Metax has demonstrated an AI super-node with 128 C550 chips designed for large-scale liquid-cooled data centers.

Other new features include the Tencent project: an open version of the Hunyuan3D World Model 1.0, which allows you to generate interactive 3D environments based on text and image queries.

Baidu has unveiled a new version of the "digital man" technology designed to create virtual live hosts. The technology uses "cloning" of a person's voice, intonation and facial expressions based on just 10 minutes of the original video.

Alibaba's AI-enabled glasses were also introduced. The Quark AI Glasses model, which uses its own Qwen language model, will enter the Chinese market before the end of 2025. The glasses will support voice interaction with the Alibaba map service and payment via Alipay by scanning QR codes.