In February 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China (MIIT) declared its support to the establishment of National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Innovation and Application Pilot Zones in Beijing, Tianjin (Binhai New Area), Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Chengdu. This is the second batch of pilot zones announced by the MIIT. So far, the number of China’s AI innovation and application pilot zones has increased to 8. It also marks that Chengdu has become the first AI innovation and application pilot zone in West China.
When it comes to the AI industry in Chengdu, we have to mention the new generation AI industry ecosystem with Chengdu Science City as the core. The industry drives innovative and high-quality development.
Attracting Top Enterprises
At present, with Chengdu Science City as the core, a number of enterprises have formed a strong aggregation effect, enabling the overall development of Chengdu’s AI industry.
With over 90 key enterprises in the ecosystem, the aggregation has greatly contributed to the local transformation of AI technology. The ecosystem has also attracted many university projects here, including the Sichuan Energy Internet Research Institute of Tsinghua University and Chengdu Innovation Research Institute of Beihang University, which have offered ideal conditions for the integration of AI production and research.
In the wave of the digital economy, focusing on the development of the AI industry, the ecosystem has aggregated the upstream and downstream enterprises of the industrial chain and gradually built a complete industrial ecosystem, helping Chengdu become the “fourth AI city”.
Series of Modes for Attraction and Cultivation of AI Projects
The development of the industry cannot be separated from the support of policy. Since the MIIT started the establishment of the National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Innovation and Application Pilot Zone in 2019, Chengdu has been actively putting it into practice. At present, relevant policies have been enacted to create a solid development environment for the industry.
First, introduce strongly targeted industrial support policies; Second, provide rich application scenarios for AI enterprises and attract AI enterprises to establish themselves.
In addition, the ecological environment is also under construction. First, build a sound enterprise service system; Second, promote the implementation of policies; Third, deepen policy interpretation and build an efficient communication platform.
Build Industrial Area to Form Aggregation Effect
To be specific, in terms of AI infrastructure construction, Chengdu has built industrial parks and facilities, such as the “Supercomputing Center” and the New Economy Industrial Park, to accelerate the implementation of the digital economy.
The Chengdu Supercomputing Center, with a maximum computing speed of 100 million billion calculations per second, was completed and put into operation in September 2020. It has cooperated with more than 200 institutions and completed 1.52 million scientific research projects. The CPU utilization rate has reached 30%.
Huawei Kunpeng Industrial Ecosystem Base and Tianfu High Performance Computing Public Technology Service Platform and many other innovation platforms have been completely put into operation, serving more than 400 enterprises and enabling the development of the AI industry in Tianfu New Area.
The Unicorn Island, the Science and Technology Innovation Park, the Overseas High-level Talents Innovation Park, the Smart Port and other core industrial carriers will create a favorable environment for the development of the AI industry. Zones A, B, C and D of the New Economy Industrial Park have been put into use with about 6,000 employees.
Synergistic Development in Tianfu New Area
Digital economy industries such as AI and big data were frequently mentioned in China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), which was released last month. 36KR Sichuan learned that in the first year of the 14th Five-Year Plan, Tianfu New Area New Economy Bureau will also launch a series of measures targeting the AI industry:
First, strengthen the capacity of innovation sources, deepen the construction of a “1+3+N” innovation system led by the Comprehensive National Science Center, with laboratories in three major fields as the core, and supported by a number of major scientific and technological infrastructure and research platforms.
Second, improve the business patterns for serving science and technology. Chengdu will introduce well-known service agencies at home and abroad, accelerate the construction of Tianfu International Technology Transfer Center, and build an innovation platform for the advanced computing industry based on the Chengdu Supercomputing Center.
Third, improve the ecology of the digital economy. Chengdu will accelerate the settlement of a number of leading enterprises, start the construction of a number of major projects, and spare no effort to promote the completion of a number of provincial and municipal key projects such as M&S Electronics and put them into operation.
Fourth, enhance the level of city management and industrial promotion. On the principle of “preferential in industry, composite in functions, intensified in space, and suitable for both living and business”, the construction of the first zone of Fengqigu Digital Economy Industrial Park will start within the year.
As the AI industry has become the core driving force for the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, Chengdu regards the AI industry as an important way to transform economic development and promote Chengdu to become the industrial highland of China’s new economy.