Acsah H Acsah H is a postgraduate student at the Department of Geopolitics and International Relations, Manipal Institute of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, MAHE, Manipal, Udupi. She is currently a research intern at the National Institute of Advanced

During 17-20 July, the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) alongside the High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance, took place at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center. This marked the ninth edition of the conference, with the first WAIC being held in 2018. The overarching theme for the 2026 WAIC was officially finalised as "AI Partnership for a Brighter Future." 

The defining moment of this event came at the opening ceremony, when President Xi Jinping delivered the keynote; in earlier years Xi had only sent congratulatory written remarks. During the 2024 and 2025 editions of the event, it was fronted and opened by Premier Li Qiang. Xi Jinping’s presence in 2026 signalled how far AI had climbed on Beijing's agenda, and set the tone for the four days in which China sought to present itself as an architect of how technology is governed worldwide.

What happened at WAIC 2026?
First, the conference opened on 17 July with Xi's address and the launch of a new institution, the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO). The founding agreement of the organisation was signed by 29 countries across Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. The organisation's permanent headquarters is established in Shanghai. President Xi called the body a milestone in world AI development and explicitly framed open-source models as an “international public good” arguing that AI should be "a symphony of international cooperation" rather than the preserve of any single country. He officially committed China to providing 5,000 training opportunities for developing countries over the next five years. He also warned against creating "new historical injustices," stemming from a tech monopoly. In doing so he attempts to position China as a bridge across the global intelligence divide. 

Second, the conference also expanded its academic dimension. On 18 July, the inaugural WAIC Academic (WAICA) opened as an independent top-tier academic arm. Its first Best Paper session was chaired by computer scientist and Turing laureate Yao Qizhi with reinforcement-learning pioneer Richard Sutton as international co-chair. Out of 282 global submissions, exactly 57 papers were curated for these sessions. The exhibition ran throughout, debuted 300 new global AI products, and the event wrapped up on 20 Monday July.

Third, this year's conference was larger and more diplomatic in tone compared to its predecessors. The official attendance was broad and high-level, alongside President Xi, guests included UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Thailand Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, Cambodia's Hun Sen, Pakistan's Deputy PM Mohammad Ishaq Dar and Russia's presidential aide Maxim Oreshkin. A total of 102 countries and international organisations were represented during the four-day summit. Shanghai Municipal Government verifies that the event hosted exactly 1,568 experts, including 432 foreign speakers and 11 holders of the Turing Award, Nobel Prize, or Fields Medal and more than 400,000 in -person visitors.

What did China demonstrate at WAIC 2026?
One of the most visible shifts at WAIC 2026 was the move from showcasing individual AI models to the infrastructure required to run them at scale. Huawei unveiled its Atlas 950 SuperPoD at the event. Powered by their own UnifiedBus interconnect technology, the system links up to 8,192 NPUs to behave as a single logical computer without relying on US components. This solidified the conference’s overarching trend of prioritising massive “supernodes” over individual chips. The Humanoid robots reportedly dominated the exhibition floor. Unitree presented a simulated unmanned robot factory floor, SenseTime showcased an entirely robot-staffed smart retail store layout. Leading firms such as AgiBot and MiniMax showcased new models and machines, expanding their physical embodied AI footprints. 

Beyond the launch of WAICO, China’s state framework published the Action Plan on AI development cooperation and a "China Wisdom for the World" case collection to advance tech transfer to developing countries. The commercial results were substantial, financial summaries from the Shanghai Municipal Government and state media confirm a record USD 3 billion in intended purchases, highlighting a 25 percent year-on-year increase. Additionally, 32 core Shanghai AI projects were signed at the closing ceremony, representing an investment value of USD 6,044,840 million.

What does WAIC mean for the US?
For the US, WAIC 2026 reads as a direct challenge. WAICO amounts to a China-led governance bloc serving as an alternative to the EU AI Act and the G7 Hiroshima AI process. This reflects the organisation's stance against Western regulatory frameworks. By casting open-source AI as a shared good and actively courting the Global South, Beijing is competing for influence in a domain Washington has largely shaped, a contest some observers now call "AI diplomacy." Founding members include Brazil, Pakistan, Russia, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan, creating a distinct "non-Western" tech alliance. 

The US response has increasingly focused on restricting Chinese access to sensitive technologies and limiting potential security risks associated with Chinese AI and robotics. The US House of Representatives recently passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Section 163 explicitly prohibits the US military from procuring or operating humanoid robots built by firms linked with itself due to surveillance and data privacy risks. Additional commercial restriction mechanisms, such as adding Chinese humanoids to the FCC's Covered List, are also actively being debated in Congress. Meanwhile, the picture of global AI development is not solely defined by China’s ascendancy, as local manufacturers concede a gap in advanced "brains" and training data compared to the United States' lead in foundation models and computers. 

The 2026 conference thus showcased China's hardware strength while signaling an intent to shift the global AI narrative toward openness and governance via WAICO. Ultimately, the future of global AI, whether divided or unified, may hinge on the next steps taken by WAICO. 

References:
Howard Liu, “Xi Jinping to attend World AI Conference for first time as China elevates tech push,” SCMP, 13 July 2026 
https://sc.mp/kb4lh?utm_source=copy-link&utm_campaign=3360404&utm_medium=share_widget 

“World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2026,” AIII 
https://aiii.global/waic-2026/ 

Laurie Chen, “China's Xi to outline AI diplomacy vision at key Shanghai forum,” Reuters, 16 July 2026
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-xi-outline-ai-diplomacy-vision-key-shanghai-forum-2026-07-16/ 

Xinmei Shen, “Top takeaways from Xi Jinping’s opening address at the World AI Conference in Shanghai,” SCMP, 17 July 2026
https://sc.mp/8pcax?utm_source=copy-link&utm_campaign=3360870&utm_medium=share_widget 

Wency Chen, “From humanoids to Huawei: what to watch as Xi attends China’s WAIC amid US AI rivalry,” SCMP 17 July 2026
https://sc.mp/7qt1l?utm_source=copy-link&utm_campaign=3360800&utm_medium=share_widget 

Laurie Chen, Casey Hall and Eduardo Baptista, “Xi pitches China as leader of new global AI order, challenging US dominance,” Reuters, 17 July 2026
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/chinas-xi-promotes-chinas-commitment-ai-access-speech-shanghai-conference-2026-07-17/ 

“WAIC 2026: New coordinates for global AI governance and China's contributions,” CGTN, 20 July 
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2026-07-20/New-coordinates-for-global-AI-governance-and-China-s-contributions-1OW4UqtQrQc/p.html 

Wency Chen and Iris Deng, “Chinese robot makers’ lament: if we only had a better ‘brain’, and more data,” SCMP  21 July 2026
https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3361243/chinese-robot-makers-lament-if-we-only-had-better-brain-and-more-data 

“WAIC 2026 seals major deals, deepens global ties,” International Services Shanghai, 21 July 2026
https://english.shanghai.gov.cn/en-WAICHighlights/20260721/37feb75ae75f49d588a7cb76400e5b89.html 

Ann Cao, “Heat, hardware and high stakes at China’s World Artificial Intelligence Conference,” SCMP 22 July 2026 
https://sc.mp/envru?utm_source=copy-link&utm_campaign=3361404&utm_medium=share_widget 

“A Glance at the AI Future at WAIC 2026,” CGTN, 22 July 2026
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2026-07-22/A-Glance-at-the-AI-Future-at-WAIC-2026-1OZt2gaL8ZO/share_amp.html 

“UNIDO advances global cooperation on AI for industry at WAIC 2026,” UNIDO, 23 July 2026
https://www.unido.org/news/unido-advances-global-cooperation-ai-industry-waic-2026 

“WAIC ends in Shanghai on a high note,” International Services Shanghai, 21 July 2026
https://english.shanghai.gov.cn/en-WAICHighlights/20260721/d5c40809f9854af4a40405896bf83856.html 

“WAIC Academic to give China a bigger role in the global AI arena,” International Services Shanghai, 20 July 2026
https://english.shanghai.gov.cn/en-WAICHighlights/20260720/53b63051f0014695a10ffaddf4707296.html 

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