Tech firms huge and small will converge in Shanghai this weekend to showcase their artificial intelligence innovations and support China's booming AI sector as it faces U.S. sanctions.

A participant tries out a wearable innovative device at the 24th China Internet Conference in Beijing on July 23, 2025. Photo: IC Global delegates attend the World Internet Conference Digital Silk Road Development Forum held in Quanzhou, East China's Fujian Province, on July 25, 2025. Photo: VCG

China has invited high-level representatives from over 40 countries and international organizations to attend the 2025 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on Thursday.

HANNA DOHMEN is a Senior Research Analyst at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology and a Nonresident Fellow at the Atlantic Council.

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Star founders, Beijing officials and deep-pocketed financiers converge on Shanghai by the thousands this weekend to attend China’s most important AI summit. At the top of the agenda: how to propel Beijing’s ambitions to leapfrog the US in artificial intelligence — and profit off that drive.