Shanghai accelerates AI ecosystem development, beefing up self-reliance amid global challenges

The Shanghai Supercomputing Center, the city's first high-performance computing public service platform, has built a public AI service platform with a peak capacity of 100 PFLOPS (FP16).

The platform provides AI computing resources for scientific research and universities, supporting applications such as Shanghai's daily weather forecasts and domestic aircraft design.

It is the latest move of the city's efforts on optimizing its artificial intelligence ecosystem, encompassing computing capabilities, infrastructure, AI models, and diverse applications, ranging from weather forecasting and steel manufacturing to advanced video analysis.

This comprehensive ecosystem, built on domestically developed AI infrastructure and models, aligns with Shanghai's strategic AI development plan and mitigates risks associated with potential tech sanctions and tariff hikes, which could disrupt access to critical components like chips.

"The AI platform features a full-stack localized solution, meaning it is fully localized from hardware and software to development tools and applications," said Li Gengguo, director of the center.

As a city-level AI platform, enterprises can apply for subsidies of up to 300,000 yuan (US$41,096) annually to utilize AI capabilities. The platform has already served approximately 100 enterprises across various sectors, including aircraft research, drug development, automotive manufacturing, and Internet services. The companies include industry big names like COMAC (Commercial Aircraft Corp of China) and SAIC Group, this reporter learned during a media tour of the center recently.

Ascend, a key technology partner of the center, is integrating AI infrastructure with AI models, including DeepSeek. It is collaborating with the DeepSeek team to optimize the AI model's performance on domestic infrastructure, particularly the next-generation DeepSeek model, expected to be released within months.

Giants like Baosteel and China Pacific Insurance Co in Shanghai are adopting AI-powered services and scenes in steelmaking and insurance, respectively. Baosteel, for example, plans to deploy 300 AI applications by the end of this year.

SenseTime, a major provider of AI capabilities for several of Shanghai's city-level AI platforms, launched its upgraded SenseNova V6 AI model in the city. This model offers high-performance multi-modal reasoning at a reduced training cost.

SenseTime's V6 model is also the first in China to break the 10-minute barrier in video understanding, achieving analysis of extended video content within seconds. This capability has wide-ranging applications in video editing, game streaming, and cultural and tourism guidance.