(Yicai) July 17 -- The four-day World Artificial Intelligence Conference opened today in Shanghai. The exhibition is divided into three areas -- Zhangjiang, the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center, and the Xuhui West Bund -- covering more than 100,000 square meters in total and featuring over 1,100 exhibitors and more than 3,000 exhibits.

Yicai has reviewed the conference across the entire AI industry chain, from chips and computing infrastructure to embodied intelligence and consumer devices, and selected 10 key highlights. Here is the first part, featuring five highlights.

Highlight 1: Local AI Chip Manufacturers Gather for the First Time

The Zhangjiang exhibition area has brought together more than 100 computing chip and infrastructure companies, showcasing over 200 exhibits. More than a dozen leading domestic AI chipmakers, including MetaX Integrated Circuits and Moore Threads Technology, are participating.

At the conference, MetaX unveiled its S-series supernode servers and next-generation X-series chips for the first time, while also demonstrating domestic chip applications in research fields such as materials science, meteorology, and biomedicine. Moore Threads also showcased, for the first time, the achievements of domestic chips in ultra-large-scale AI training.

In addition, chip startup Dongfang Suanxin unveiled its first high-performance AI chip, the DF1000, ahead of the conference. The company claims the chip is built on a mature domestic 14-nanometer process while delivering performance comparable to a 4-nanometer chip. It also showcased a 512-card computing cluster at the event.

Highlight 2: Huawei Unveils the World's Largest Supernode Server

Telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies unveiled the Atlas 950 SuperPoD, billed as the world's largest supernode server, at the Expo exhibition area. Equipped with 1,024 Huawei Ascend chips, it leads the industry in key metrics including total computing power, memory capacity, and interconnect bandwidth.

Huawei's AI data center platform, Atlas 950 SuperCluster, built on the Atlas 950 SuperPoD, can be expanded to 500,000 cards and is claimed to be the world's most powerful computing cluster currently available.

Supernode servers from other infrastructure providers, including Dawning Information Industry, Alibaba Group Holding, and ZTE, are also on display in the exhibition area.

Highlight 3: Baidu and Siemens Launch 'Digital Employees'

In the application field, AI is no longer limited to chatbots and is increasingly evolving into "digital employees" capable of independently completing complex tasks.

Baidu demonstrated its general AI agent, DuMate, during a live presentation. The system autonomously broke down tasks assigned by staff and completed them step by step, including calling mobile apps to execute tasks across multiple applications and files.

German industrial giant Siemens showcased its Eigen Engineering Agent, which can complete end-to-end engineering tasks, including understanding project requirements, writing programmable logic controller code, configuring systems, and continuously optimizing workflows. The company said the system can improve engineering efficiency by 50 percent.

Highlight 4: Unitree Robotics' Manned Transformable Mecha GD01 Makes Its Debut

The conference's embodied intelligence exhibition has brought together more than 160 companies and over 310 exhibits, covering embodied AI models, complete robots, dexterous hands, and other core components.

The biggest attraction is Unitree's globally unveiled manned transformable mecha, the GD01. The mecha features a cockpit for a human operator and an integrated operating system, allowing it to seamlessly switch between bipedal upright walking and quadrupedal movement.

Other well-known robotics companies, including AgiBot, TARS Robotics, and Fourier Intelligence, are also showcasing their humanoid robots, demonstrating practical tasks such as assembly-line work, coffee making, and item retrieval.

Highlight 5: More Than 60 Consumer AI Products Available for Hands-On Experience

Unlike the Zhangjiang and Expo areas, which focus on commercial and industrial applications, the Xuhui West Bund exhibition area is dedicated to consumer AI. More than 100 companies are showcasing over 200 products across the 10,000-square-meter venue, including 64 consumer AI products that visitors can experience firsthand.

Visitors can try digital entertainment applications at the Tencent Holdings and Bilibili booths, including AI-generated music, video creation, and interactions with virtual characters. Phone brand Honor, education technology firm NetEase Youdao, and speech recognition company iFlytek are also showcasing their latest AI smartphones, smart learning devices, and health-focused hardware.

AI wearables are another major attraction in the exhibition area, with leading smart glasses brands including Rokid and Moonix on display. Visitors can experience immersive applications combining virtual reality and AI.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Emmi Laine