WAIC 2026: Under the Banner of "Intelligent Partners," Embracing a "Young Endeavor"

From July 17 to 20, 2026, the World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High‑Level Meeting on International AI Governance (WAIC) was held simultaneously across three venues and four halls in Shanghai – the Expo Centre, Zhangjiang, and West Bund. Co‑hosted by nine Chinese ministries and commissions – including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology – together with the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, this international gathering took as its theme “Intelligent Partners, Creating the Future Together,” showcasing what has been called a “young endeavor” in the field of artificial intelligence.

Since its inception on the banks of the Huangpu River in 2018, WAIC has traversed eight years of deep cultivation. This year’s conference set new records – the total exhibition area exceeded 100,000 square metres for the first time, with over 1,100 enterprises participating, more than 3,000 products on display, and over 300 products making their global debut. The conference was structured around six major sections: forums, exhibitions, awards and competitions, applied experiences, innovation incubation, and talent attraction. It featured more than 140 forums, engaging 12 national ministries, 8 national‑level key laboratories, over 10 international organisations, and bringing together more than 1,400 Chinese and foreign guests. In the two core tracks – intelligent computing and embodied intelligence – each gathered over 200 enterprises, with dozens of industry leaders, central state‑owned enterprises, and top foreign companies joining with their ecosystem partners. According to official statistics, offline attendance at this year’s WAIC exceeded 300,000 visitors.

Highlight 1: A Gathering of Global Intellectual Giants – An "All‑Star" Academic Line‑up

The academic roster of this year’s conference was nothing short of stellar. Prior to the event, nine Turing Award and Nobel Prize laureates had been confirmed to attend. Richard Sutton, the “father of reinforcement learning,” delivered a keynote address, sharing cutting‑edge insights on AI’s evolution from perception and decision‑making towards autonomous learning. Yoshua Bengio, one of the “three giants of deep learning,” provided an on‑site interpretation of the United Nations framework for AI governance. Turing Award winner Gilles Brassard (2025) and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Omar M. Yaghi (2025) engaged in deep discussions on the new paradigm of AI for Science. Kevin Kelly, hailed as the “spiritual godfather of Silicon Valley,” also attended as a special guest, remarking: “The current development of AI and embodied intelligence is astonishing – we are fortunate to be alive at this time, and what a magnificent era it is.”

Particularly noteworthy was the inaugural high‑level international academic conference, “WAIC Academic,” chaired by Turing Award winner Andrew Chi‑Chih Yao, with an academic committee led by academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering. The conference received 284 high‑quality paper submissions from multiple countries worldwide – signalling Shanghai’s ambition to build a truly world‑class AI academic home ground for China.

Highlight 2: Cutting‑Edge Technology Debuts – A Full Explosion of Computing Power and Agents

On the exhibition front, this year’s WAIC was a veritable “showcase” of frontier technology. Huawei’s Atlas 950 supernode made its first public appearance in physical form – relying on self‑developed all‑optical interconnect protocols, it uses a single cabinet with 64 cards as its basic unit, and can support up to 8,192 Ascend chips in high‑speed direct connection, with total computing power exceeding that of 500,000 cards. Shanghai Oriental Chip debuted the world’s first software‑defined near‑memory computing 3D chip, the DF1000. Sugon exhibited a 100,000‑card‑level super‑intelligent hybrid cluster, and MXene introduced a scientific‑computing‑dedicated GPU. According to conference disclosures, 108 chip products and 261 large models were showcased.

In the domain of agents and smart devices, the world’s first AI‑agent smartphone, StepStar’s native Agent OS, Honor’s Robot Phone, and Lenovo’s Tianxi AI PC were all centrally displayed. Major new products such as MiniMax’s M3 multimodal large model and the first AI memory glasses also made their debut alongside them. In addition, the conference announced its top ten “treasures of the hall,” covering fields including embodied intelligent robots, smart glasses, AI large models, and supernode servers. Among the selected entries were Zhiyuan’s full‑size commercial humanoid robot, the Expedition A3 Ultra; iFlytek’s AI glasses; Alibaba Cloud’s Zhenwu M890 supernode; and Sugon’s domestically produced 100,000‑card AI supercluster.

Highlight 3: From “Talking” to “Doing” – AI Moves Fully into Real‑World Scenarios

This year’s WAIC sent out its clearest signal: AI is moving decisively from the stage of technology demonstration to full‑scale application deployment. Industry competition has moved beyond mere parameter‑bragging for large models, and is now comprehensively entering a new phase of commercialisation of intelligent agents.

The conference set up four theme pavilions at the Expo Centre, focusing respectively on model applications and agents, computing chips and supernodes, humanoid robots and embodied models, and start‑ups with innovative projects. In the “AI + Manufacturing” area, a real automotive production line was brought into the hall, with robotic arms collaborating to build cars under unattended conditions; visitors could see firsthand how humanoid robots take up posts on factory floors. The conference also joined hands with 24 urban landmarks to launch 6 AI city‑walk thematic routes, covering AI innovation ecosystems, science education, urban renewal, consumer entertainment, and industrial innovation. Evening sessions featured special events such as the youth AI music variety show Sound Universe, bringing the AI experience out of the exhibition halls and into the entire city.

Highlight 4: Governance and Academia Advance Together – China Contributes Global Solutions

WAIC is not merely an industry showcase; it is also an important platform where China contributes governance frameworks and academic rules to the world. On the eve of the conference, the signing ceremony for the agreement on the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation was held in Shanghai on July 16.

During the conference, the Global Centre for AI Innovation and Governance released a number of governance research outcomes, including the ethics review agent system “Yijian” 2.0, the Global AI Governance Index (2026) – Perspectives from the Global South and Capacity Building, and the Global AI Governance Trends report. Among these, the governance index covers forty representative economies worldwide, and for the first time incorporates perspectives from the Global South into AI governance assessments. Sun Xiaobo, the Foreign Ministry’s Coordinator for AI Affairs, expressed the hope that the conference would promote unity, shared development, and collective action, and continue to advance the implementation of the AI Global Governance Action Plan proposed last year.

Every leap forward in the AI industry depends on a solid foundation of computing infrastructure. As evidenced by the supernodes and 100,000‑card clusters showcased at WAIC, efficient and inclusive computing power has become the core engine for AI development. Omniyq Compute Rental Platform (omniyq.com) is precisely a key enabler of this trend – the platform is committed to providing cost‑effective computing rental services, offering flexible and elastic GPU resource allocation to lower the threshold of computing power for AI R&D and deployment, enabling more SMEs and developers to access high‑performance computing support at low cost. Amid the wave of transformation from “talking” to “doing” that WAIC has revealed, Omniyq is powering the innovation and development of the global AI industry with inclusive computing services.