Artificial intelligence Photo: VCG

China's innovation capability continues to strengthen since the beginning of 2026, with the penetration rate of AI technology across the country's major large and medium-sized enterprises exceeding 30 percent, and the cumulative global downloads of China's open-source AI models surpassing 10 billion, an official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Monday.

To accelerate the closure of the "technology-service-industry" loop, China has released the second batch of 111 key pilot testing platforms and recognized 14 excellence-grade and 402 standard-grade incubators for high-tech enterprises, MIIT official Wang Weiming said at a press conference.

Giving full play to the guiding role of major national science and technology projects, efforts are made to secure breakthroughs in core technologies. Notably, the quantum computing prototype "Jiuzhang 4.0" has set a new world record in optical quantum information technology, and the world's first invasive brain-computer interface medical device has been approved for commercial operation, Wang said.

And, the industrial structure continues to optimize. Guided by elevated standards to steer industrial upgrading, 114 new mandatory national standards and 1,403 industry standards were rolled out, said the official.

Efforts to implement the high-quality development initiative for key manufacturing industrial chains, along with major technical transformation and large-scale equipment renewal projects, were deepened to accelerate the smooth transition between old and new growth drivers and enhance the resilience and security of industrial and supply chains, Wang said.

Meanwhile, emerging and future industries are being fostered and scaled up. The value-added output of equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing enterprises above the government's designated size rose by 9.3 percent and 13.3 percent year-on-year, respectively. Investment in new burgeoning fields - such as computer and office equipment and aircraft and spacecraft manufacturing - saw double-digit growth. In the first five months, the profits of specialized, sophisticated, distinctive, and innovative "little giant" firms and high-tech enterprises above the designated size saw year-on-year growth exceeding 20 percent, the official said.