The 2025 China International Big Data Industry Expo opened on August 28 in Guiyang, Southwest China's Guizhou province, where enterprises and scholars unveiled new products and reports, underscoring China's achievements in the digital economy and determination to drive artificial intelligence (AI)-led innovation. Launched in 2015, the Expo has become the world's premier platform for the development of big data industry. The 2025 Expo, which ran from August 28 to 30 under the theme “Data empowers industries, intelligence shapes the future,” featured 26 exchange events and 34 special sessions, drawing more than 16,000 participants and 375 exhibitors from China and abroad.
China's growing intelligent computing capacity was highlighted at the Expo. China's total intelligent computing capacity has reached 780,000 PFlops, which ranks second in the world, Liu Liehong, Director of the National Data Administration (NDA), said at the opening ceremony. The Expo spotlights cutting-edge innovations integrating data with AI, which aim to drive efficient convergence and value realization of data resources, injecting robust momentum into industrial upgrading and high-quality economic growth. At the opening ceremony, Huawei Cloud CEO Zhang Ping'an said that China is emerging as the “fertile black soil” for global computing power, laying the foundation for a flourishing AI ecosystem. Zhang said Huawei's AI cloud services are growing rapidly, with overall capacity up 250% year-on-year and the number of customers increasing from just over 300 last year to more than 1,700 today. “China's vast computing capacity is not only powering domestic innovation but also shaping the global AI landscape,” he said.
At Chinese cybersecurity company DAS-Security's booth, two trays of tomatoes drew crowds of Chinese and foreign visitors eager to taste the results of its data-driven farming model, which connects to IoT sensors to capture temperature, humidity and light data for precise cultivation. “Our tomato growth model, built on the Data Space framework, was selected as a national benchmark for secure data circulation,” Luo Bangfu, Technical Director of DAS-Security's Guiyang branch, told the Global Times. “This system integrates trusted execution environments, blockchain and AI to deliver secure, traceable data flows and guide farmers with precise instructions on irrigation and fertilization,” said Luo. “It marks a smart agriculture revolution, already in use across farms, expanding from Zhejiang to nationwide and drawing overseas interest. By standardizing crop quality and cutting trial-and-error losses, it has boosted efficiency and increased profits.”
"China's data industry has made strong progress over the past year," Zhang Xianghong, Professor from the International Center for Information Research at Beijing Jiaotong University, told the Global Times during the Expo. “The number of enterprises has more than doubled to over 400,000, the market has grown close to CNY6 trillion, and clusters are emerging nationwide. By the end of this year, a batch of national-level clusters will be unveiled to showcase the country's latest achievements.”
The China Daily adds that the number of data-related enterprises in China surpassed 400,000 in 2024, while the market scale of the nation’s data industry reached CNY5.86 trillion.
