World Artificial Intelligence Conference

The World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) is an annual AI summit held in Shanghai, first launched in 2018 and described at its inception as "the Olympics of artificial intelligence" . Co-hosted by Chinese central government ministries, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Shanghai municipal government, the conference has grown from a niche industry gathering to a mass-scale event — attendance crossed 300,000 in 2024 and 2026 was billed as "the largest AI event in history" . Its programming centers on flagship technology domains: large models, embodied intelligence, robotics, autonomous driving, and domestic AI computing infrastructure . For Chinese venture capital firms — including Gaorong Ventures, BlueRun Ventures, and Yunqi Capital — WAIC serves as a key stage where portfolio companies debut products and where investors map the shift from "AI as demonstration" to "AI as deliverable" .