--- title: China’s AI industry is moving from models to agents, a... description: A China Telecom Research Institute report, carried by state broadcaster CCTV, says China's AI industry is pivoting from building large models to deploying and... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/china-s-ai-industry-is-moving-from-models-to-agents-a-state-report-says-yp5piauho twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: China’s AI industry is moving from models to agents, a state report says | daily.dev og:description: A China Telecom Research Institute report, carried by state broadcaster CCTV, says China's AI industry is pivoting from building large models to deploying and... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/china-s-ai-industry-is-moving-from-models-to-agents-a-state-report-says-yp5piauho og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Yp5piaUho.png og:image:alt: China’s AI industry is moving from models to agents, a state report says og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # China’s AI industry is moving from models to agents, a state report says **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 3 min read · 3 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary A China Telecom Research Institute report, carried by state broadcaster CCTV, says China's AI industry is pivoting from building large models to deploying and selling AI agents, with inference expected to make up 80% of the country's compute market by 2029 as agent-driven demand grows nearly tenfold over two to three years. Chinese tech firms are projected to spend about $89B (600 billion yuan) on AI this year, over a tenth of national investment. Europe's parallel bet is seven planned AI gigafactories under a EUR 30B program, with only about EUR 1B currently committed versus a EUR 10B public funding target that depends on an unresolved 2028-2035 EU budget. Bidding, originally slated for May, opened in July and closes in November, with interested bidders dropping from roughly 70 to about ten; machines are due online by mid-2028, a year after China's projected inference crossover, assuming no further delays. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What percentage of China's AI compute market will inference make up by 2029? Inference is projected to account for 80% of China's computing-power market by 2029, overtaking demand from model training, according to a China Telecom Research Institute report carried by state broadcaster CCTV. The shift reflects China's AI industry moving from competing on large models toward deploying and selling AI agents, which is expected to drive nearly tenfold annual growth in computing demand over the next two to three years. _Teams weighing training versus inference spend can follow compute market shifts like this on daily.dev._ ### How much is the EU spending on its AI gigafactories program and how much funding is actually secured? The EU's gigafactories program is a EUR 30 billion effort covering up to seven facilities, with about EUR 10 billion intended from public money and EUR 20 billion hoped for from private investors, but only roughly EUR 1 billion is currently committed. Most of the public funding depends on an unagreed 2028-2035 EU budget, and bidder interest has fallen from about 70 companies to roughly ten. _Anyone tracking EU AI infrastructure funding can follow the gigafactory timeline on daily.dev._ ### How much are Chinese tech companies expected to spend on AI this year compared to Europe's committed gigafactory funding? Chinese technology companies are expected to spend close to 600 billion yuan, about $89 billion, on AI this year, which represents more than a tenth of all investment in the country. That is roughly equivalent to spending Europe's entire committed EUR 1 billion gigafactory budget about every five days. _Comparing AI investment scale across regions matters for anyone assessing infrastructure strategy on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@llaravell** · 0 upvotes > The future of AI is shifting from model wars to infrastructure and agent ecosystems. A great model is only useful when it can be deployed, integrated, and scaled. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Huawei says AI will burn 100,000 times more tokens by 2035](https://daily.dev/posts/huawei-says-ai-will-burn-100-000-times-more-tokens-by-2035-nb0fammky) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#ai-infrastructure](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-infrastructure) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/china-s-ai-industry-is-moving-from-models-to-agents-a-state-report-says-yp5piauho) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"China’s AI industry is moving from models to agents, a state report says","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/china-s-ai-industry-is-moving-from-models-to-agents-a-state-report-says-yp5piauho","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/china-s-ai-industry-is-moving-from-models-to-agents-a-state-report-says-yp5piauho"},"datePublished":"2026-09-12T11:31:25.062Z","dateModified":"2026-09-12T11:31:48.534Z","description":"A China Telecom Research Institute report, carried by state broadcaster CCTV, says China's AI industry is pivoting from building large models to deploying and...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/e3e096a7839373dd91722db6ea81d7f2?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/e3e096a7839373dd91722db6ea81d7f2?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":1,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/china-s-ai-industry-is-moving-from-models-to-agents-a-state-report-says-yp5piauho","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}],"keywords":"ai-agents,ai-infrastructure","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"China’s AI industry is moving from models to agents, a state report says"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/china-s-ai-industry-is-moving-from-models-to-agents-a-state-report-says-yp5piauho","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"The future of AI is shifting from model wars to infrastructure and agent ecosystems. A great model is only useful when it can be deployed, integrated, and scaled.","datePublished":"2026-09-13T07:55:27.059Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/Yp5piaUho#c-ovTkEcOP3","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Taha Shokri","url":"https://daily.dev/llaravell","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocLiwIPy9ir8m0LZX1MGI8uN3t4N_NEfvugyyU9S_LFpmEcnwgQ=s96-c"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/china-s-ai-industry-is-moving-from-models-to-agents-a-state-report-says-yp5piauho#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What percentage of China's AI compute market will inference make up by 2029?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Inference is projected to account for 80% of China's computing-power market by 2029, overtaking demand from model training, according to a China Telecom Research Institute report carried by state broadcaster CCTV. The shift reflects China's AI industry moving from competing on large models toward deploying and selling AI agents, which is expected to drive nearly tenfold annual growth in computing demand over the next two to three years. Teams weighing training versus inference spend can follow compute market shifts like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How much is the EU spending on its AI gigafactories program and how much funding is actually secured?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The EU's gigafactories program is a EUR 30 billion effort covering up to seven facilities, with about EUR 10 billion intended from public money and EUR 20 billion hoped for from private investors, but only roughly EUR 1 billion is currently committed. Most of the public funding depends on an unagreed 2028-2035 EU budget, and bidder interest has fallen from about 70 companies to roughly ten. Anyone tracking EU AI infrastructure funding can follow the gigafactory timeline on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How much are Chinese tech companies expected to spend on AI this year compared to Europe's committed gigafactory funding?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Chinese technology companies are expected to spend close to 600 billion yuan, about $89 billion, on AI this year, which represents more than a tenth of all investment in the country. That is roughly equivalent to spending Europe's entire committed EUR 1 billion gigafactory budget about every five days. Comparing AI investment scale across regions matters for anyone assessing infrastructure strategy on daily.dev."}}]} ```