Shanghai AI conference opens with record 800 exhibitors amid US export restrictions

Shanghai’s World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) opens this weekend with its largest exhibitor list yet. Organizers expect over 800 companies to show more than 3,000 AI products, including 40 large language models, 50 AI devices, and 60 intelligent robots.

Premier Li Qiang will deliver the keynote, using the stage to advocate for an international governance framework that strikes a balance between technological progress and security. He argues that fragmented rules could leave AI an “exclusive game” for a handful of states or companies, and has proposed a new body to coordinate standards, particularly for developing economies.

The event unfolds against a backdrop of ongoing US export controls on advanced chips and fabrication tools—measures first imposed during the Trump administration and subsequently tightened. Supply constraints have not prevented local breakthroughs: Hangzhou-based DeepSeek unveiled a low-cost model this year that rivals leading US systems, and Nvidia chief Jensen Huang recently praised models from DeepSeek, Alibaba, and Tencent as “world-class.”

Chinese heavyweights Huawei and Alibaba will dominate the show floor, but Western names such as Tesla, Alphabet, and Amazon have also booked space. Start-ups bring additional color; humanoid-robot specialist Unitree, for instance, will demonstrate its latest bipedal designs.

With national strategies for AI diverging, the three-day WAIC has become both a technology showcase and a diplomatic forum. Whether Li’s call for shared rules gains traction may well shape the next phase of the global AI race.