{"slug": "from-humanoids-to-huawei-what-to-watch-as-xi-attends-chinas-waic-amid-us-ai", "title": "From humanoids to Huawei: what to watch as Xi attends China’s WAIC amid US AI rivalry", "summary": "Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the World AI Conference in Shanghai on Friday, delivering a keynote speech as China showcases its push to compete across the full AI stack amid an intensifying technology rivalry with the United States. The event, featuring over 1,100 companies and 3,000 exhibits, highlights Beijing's focus on technological self-reliance and development of domestic alternatives to US chips.", "body_md": "# From humanoids to Huawei: what to watch as Xi attends China’s WAIC amid US AI rivalry\n\nGathering will showcase Beijing’s push to compete across the full AI stack, from models and chips to robots, consumer devices\n\n[artificial intelligence](https://www.scmp.com/topics/artificial-intelligence?module=inline&pgtype=article)gathering this week to showcase an ambition that extends beyond catching up with the United States in foundation models to building dominance in autonomous agents, scientific research, humanoid robots and consumer devices.\n\nThe World AI Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai comes amid an intensifying technology rivalry with the US, whose restrictions continue to constrain China’s access to advanced computing chips. Beijing has responded by making technological self-reliance a national priority and accelerating the development of domestic alternatives across hardware and software.\n\nChina has also rejected criticism that its promotion of open-source AI models overseas amounts to a “trap”. Responding on Thursday to a question citing such claims in Western media, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said Beijing opposed drawing ideological lines and imposing technological blockades. He said China would use WAIC to promote exchanges and consensus, while seeking to ensure that the benefits of AI development reached more developing countries.\n\n[Xi Jinping](https://www.scmp.com/topics/xi-jinping?module=inline&pgtype=article)will\n\n[attend the opening ceremony](https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3360404/xi-jinping-attend-world-ai-conference-first-time-china-elevates-tech-push?module=inline&pgtype=article)on Friday and deliver a keynote speech, adding political weight to an event that has traditionally showcased the country’s technology industry. The four-day conference will bring together more than 1,100 companies displaying over 3,000 exhibits, including more than 300 products making their global debuts, according to organisers.\n\nThis year’s WAIC is likely to be read as a test of how far China has progressed towards turning advances in models into a broader industrial ecosystem, as well as how it seeks to shape global rules through academic engagement, safety standards, governance frameworks and international collaboration.\n\n**AI moves beyond chats**\n\nAI is leaving the screen and extending its reach into the physical world as foundation models become multimodal and acquire the ability to execute tasks.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/from-humanoids-to-huawei-what-to-watch-as-xi-attends-chinas-waic-amid-us-ai", "canonical_source": "https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3360800/humanoids-huawei-what-watch-xi-attends-chinas-waic-amid-us-ai-rivalry?utm_source=rss_feed", "published_at": "2026-07-17 01:00:05+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-17 01:42:14.339710+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-policy", "ai-products", "ai-infrastructure", "ai-chips"], "entities": ["Xi Jinping", "Huawei", "World AI Conference", "Shanghai", "China", "United States"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/from-humanoids-to-huawei-what-to-watch-as-xi-attends-chinas-waic-amid-us-ai", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/from-humanoids-to-huawei-what-to-watch-as-xi-attends-chinas-waic-amid-us-ai.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/from-humanoids-to-huawei-what-to-watch-as-xi-attends-chinas-waic-amid-us-ai.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/from-humanoids-to-huawei-what-to-watch-as-xi-attends-chinas-waic-amid-us-ai.jsonld"}}