China’s Generative AI Users Top 700 Million
China’s generative AI user base surpassed 700 million as of the first half of 2026, with adoption penetration exceeding 50%, according to a report released September 29 by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). The milestone means roughly one in two people in China now uses generative AI products, up from 602 million users at the end of 2025 — an increase of more than 100 million in just six months, as The Straits Times reported.
The figure, unveiled at the 7th China Internet Infrastructure Resources Conference, positions the country’s vast user base as what People’s Daily, citing an Economic Daily commentary, called a “massive foundation” for China’s fast-expanding AI industry.
How People Are Using Generative AI
Question-answering remains the dominant use case. According to the CNNIC report, 76.0% of users turn to generative AI for answers, followed by image and video processing at 47.8%, text processing at 37.6%, and work summaries, meeting notes, and presentations at 32.5%.
Use of general AI assistants and office productivity tools grew more than 100% year-on-year, signaling deepening engagement beyond casual chat. AIBase News noted that this growing “stickiness” reflects AI’s shift into routine work tasks.
The report also found that 38.7% of Chinese internet users bought smart hardware devices online in the past six months, with wearables and 3C digital products serving as the primary gateway to AI-enabled devices.
Infrastructure Scales in Parallel
The user surge rests on rapid buildout of computing and model capacity. China’s intelligent computing power reached 2,185 EFLOPS as of June 2026, a 177% year-on-year increase, while the first fully domestic 100,000-card AI super cluster — full-stack independent from chips to cooling systems — entered operation.
On the model side, DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and others launched multiple trillion-parameter open-source models, and the top six models on the global mainstream model-calling list are all from Chinese teams. More than 120,000 high-quality datasets have been accumulated, according to the report.
Industry application is broadening as well: more than 400 humanoid robot models were launched in the first half of 2026, annual humanoid robot production is expected to exceed 100,000 units, and AI adoption in manufacturing surpassed 30%. Agriculture large models such as “Shennong,” “Guyu,” and “Fanli” are also in use.
Investment and Industry Momentum
Capital is flowing in quickly. There were 1,255 AI investment and financing deals in the first half of 2026, with disclosed amounts reaching approximately 250.14 billion yuan — 1.82 times the total for the entire previous year. As of June, China was home to 10,740 companies involved in AI large models, AI agents, and robotics, concentrated mainly in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
The surge follows a deliberate policy push. In August 2025, the State Council issued the “AI Plus” guideline to drive AI integration across science, industry, consumption, well-being, governance and global cooperation, targeting a penetration rate for next-generation intelligent terminals and AI agents above 70% by 2027, according to gov.cn.
Scale vs. Substance
Analysts caution that user scale alone does not equal ecosystem strength. Let’s Data Science noted that the statistic “describes people who use generative-AI services; it is not a measure of the number of models, companies, or paid subscriptions,” adding that “a 700-million-user estimate is a scale metric, not an assessment of model quality, safety, or commercial revenue.”
People’s Daily made a similar point, writing that “having 700 million users does not automatically mean having a strong AI industry ecosystem,” while CNNIC is a government-affiliated body whose figures are the authoritative domestic source.
What’s Next
The commentary pointed to three priorities: converting user scale into a supply-demand loop that turns “using more” into “using well”; expanding access to under-served groups such as the elderly, people with disabilities, and small businesses; and strengthening governance around algorithmic discrimination, misinformation, privacy, and minor protection.
As China’s policy focus shifts from “rushing to develop” toward balancing deployment and governance, the 700 million milestone is likely to shape both the next wave of AI applications and the regulatory framework around them. With the 2026 China International Digital Trade Expo set for Hangzhou later this month, the intersection of AI scale, commerce, and governance will remain a central theme.