By Sixth Tone
Publication Date: 2025-12-25 08:25:00
This article is part of Sixth Tone Voices & Opinion’s year-end series examining how China’s AI, film, gaming and VR industries have evolved in 2025.
China’s AI industry began 2025 as a successor. But within a year, it has grown beyond that status and reached one milestone after another.
Early on, DeepSeek-R1 disrupted the global AI industry with its low training costs and open source approach; Shortly thereafter, the Chinese government showed its support for the use of AI in industrial and other robots. and by year’s end, major AI model companies Zhipu AI and MiniMax filed IPO applications, potentially becoming the world’s first such startups to go public.
China was also seen trying to catch up with Silicon Valley while struggling with American export restrictions on the most advanced chips. But a year later, the country’s AI industry has shown that it can make breakthroughs on its own terms, and this new path promises an exciting future.
China’s Sputnik moment
On January 20th…