China's Guandong Province Introduces Slew of Measures to Promote AI

Guangdong province, known as the economic hub of southern China, has introduced 45 initiatives aimed at promoting the adoption of AI across various industries to drive technological advancement. These measures, announced by the provincial government last week, set targets for the artificial intelligence sector to achieve a value of 300 billion yuan (US$41.4 billion) by next year and 440 billion yuan by 2027. These goals correspond to 2.3 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively, of the province's GDP in 2023.

Guangdong province has announced plans for its computing power to surpass 40 exaflops by next year and reach 60 exaflops by 2027, utilizing the measure of computational speed, which indicates the number of floating-point operations a computer or system can execute per second. China has established its national computing performance objective to achieve 300 exaflops by 2025. If these objectives are met, Guangdong will contribute approximately 13 percent to China's overall computing capacity.

“These measures were crafted to promote high-quality development in the province’s AI industry, to swiftly build new productive forces, to construct a modern industrial system, and to empower various sectors to enhance quality and efficiency,” the announcement said. The new initiatives also aim for the “basic formation of a leading national algorithm system and computing power network system by 2027”.

The measures require AI to be adopted in social governance, the digital economy and industrial innovation. They aim to apply the technology in sectors ranging from manufacturing to education and senior care. This strategic move seeks to establish a mature artificial intelligence industrial chain in Guangdong, from the development and sourcing of chips to computational infrastructure, algorithm design, and deployment of AI-driven applications.