China’s generative AI user base surpasses 700m in H1 2026

China’s generative AI user base surpassed 700 million in the first half of 2026, marking a significant rise from 602 million at the end of 2025 and driving national penetration past 50%.

According to the “Generative AI Application Development Report 2026” (生成式人工智能應用發展報告2026) published by the Policy and International Cooperation Institution of the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC), generative AI has transitioned from a niche innovation into a mainstream daily utility, while integrated smart hardware continues to unlock new opportunities in consumer tech.

Adoption across general AI assistants and productivity suites surged over 100% year-on-year, with answering questions remaining the primary use case for 76% of users. Image, video, and text generation was utilised by 47.8% of users, followed by summarising work reports and meeting minutes at 37.6%, and AI-driven search or life assistance at 32.5%.

As of July 2026, AI general assistants, AI search engines, and AI life assistants emerged as the top three most-used product categories, recording monthly active usage that far outpaced other market segments.

This software boom is simultaneously fueling smart hardware consumption. Over the past six months, 38.7% of internet users in China purchased smart hardware devices online, with consumer electronics serving as the primary gateway. Specifically, 20.2% of users purchased smart wearables, while 18.2% bought 3C digital products such as smartphones and tablets.

At the enterprise level, China’s push for technological self-reliance has rapidly gathered momentum. Domestic firms, including DeepSeek and Moonshot AI, released multiple open-source models featuring trillion-level parameters. Supported by accelerated adaptation between homegrown models and domestic computing chips, Chinese teams claimed the top six positions on global mainstream model usage rankings.

Beyond the rising influence of open-source models such as DeepSeek and Qwen, venture investment in the sector reached historic highs. The first half of 2026 recorded 1,255 AI-related financing deals—already equaling 78% of 2025’s full-year total—with total capital raised reaching RMB 250.14 billion, or 182% of last year's full-year figure.

Generative AI is also expanding beyond consumer applications into core industrial sectors, including steel, non-ferrous metals, power, and telecommunications. As of June 2026, China has established 16 national-level advanced manufacturing clusters in digital domains such as integrated circuits and AI. AI adoption among large manufacturers now exceeds 30%, embedding machine intelligence across end-to-end operational chains from R&D and design to production, quality control, and predictive maintenance.

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