China leads in everyday AI apps but firms overvalued, experts warn

According to tech leaders and investors, China surpasses the US in the rollout of AI applications for everyday users, although they caution that Chinese AI companies may be becoming overvalued. At the 2026 HKEX Future Tech Summit in Shenzhen, Chi Zhang, the finance industry general manager at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group, stated that China is merely "100 days behind" the US in advanced AI model capabilities. Chinese laboratories have introduced models that closely resemble those from US counterparts like OpenAI and Anthropic. Zhang credited China's strengths in AI applications to its large pool of entrepreneurs and engineers, along with its current economic development stage. Lixue Xia, co-founder and CEO of Shanghai's Infinigence AI, noted that sectors like energy and infrastructure will drive China's potential for artificial general intelligence (AGI). Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.