Discover the New AI Future at Zhongguancun

At the 2026 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting’s “Artificial Intelligence Theme Day” event, the AI Open Source Light Band’s robot musicians performed a song created by AIGC, igniting the crowd. This reporter, He Guanxin, photographed.

This reporter, Sun Qiru.

Gathering the world’s “strongest brains” in AI, defining new directions for AI development. Recently, the “Artificial Intelligence Theme Day” at the 2026 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting entered a key spotlight period. From the clash of ideas among top global experts to the productivity leap enabled by AI across various industries, and the blueprint for a world-class AI innovation district, Beijing is taking the lead in the new wave of artificial intelligence with a “leading goose” posture.

Top minds discuss the future of AI.

“The artificial intelligence we have today is excellent, but they still cannot truly understand the three-dimensional world, so the next key step is to achieve three-dimensional predictions.” “In the future, intelligent agents may replace SaaS (Software as a Service) and Apps.”

Recently, at the core forum of “Artificial Intelligence Theme Day” — the AI Open Source Frontier Forum, a clash of ideas about the future direction of AI was unfolding. Piero Scaruffi, director of the Silicon Valley AI Research Institute, Zhang Yaqin, founding director of Tsinghua University’s Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (AIR) and Foreign Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Wang Huaimin, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, gathered as top global experts to focus on cutting-edge technology, open source, discuss the evolution of world models, and explore the future of physical intelligence.

Experts discuss, new stars shine. “We will output high-quality Tokens to the world and achieve AI-Made in China with sustainable Tokens, becoming the Token factory of the world,” said Xia Lixue, co-founder and CEO of Wuwen Xinqiong. Sharing the stage with Xia Lixue, Yang Zhilin, founder of the Dark Side of the Moon, Zhang Peng, CEO of Zhipu Huazhang, and Luo Fuli, head of Xiaomi MiMo’s large model, drew significant attention with their discussions, with no empty seats in the audience.

Where is the next competitive point in global AI? “From ChatGPT to OpenClaw, the competition in AI is shifting from ‘model breakthroughs’ to ‘computational infrastructure breakthroughs,’” said Lin Yonghua, vice president and chief engineer of the Zhiyuan Institute. On that day, with support from the Beijing municipal government and led by the Zhiyuan Institute, the unified open-source software stack FlagOS for various AI chips released a significant upgraded version 2.0. As the AI system software stack supporting the most chip types globally, FlagOS 2.0 has already achieved full-scenario support for 32 AI chips from 18 manufacturers, creating a core intelligent computing base for the era of intelligent agents.

AI gives rise to new productive forces.

Today, AI is accelerating into visible productive forces.

In the construction field, preparing construction plans is a highly complex production management task. In Wuhan, Hubei, a construction company hired an “Xian Yuan Project Management AI Expert” from Beijing, and within 2 days, it completed a plan that originally required one week, and through intelligent management of the entire construction process, it provided early warnings for risks, completing the project 10 days ahead of the original schedule. This alone brought the company an economic benefit of 30 million yuan.

“The expert experience in production and R&D is the hardest to replicate; once systematized by AI, the value is released very quickly,” said Ren Chengyuan, CEO of Xian Yuan Technology.

Xian Yuan Technology is a microcosm of AI companies in Haidian. “Beijing and Haidian provide AI companies not just resources, but a soil that rapidly transforms cutting-edge technology into new productive forces.” During a parallel forum focused on artificial intelligence, Ren Chengyuan told reporters. In his view, being rooted in Zhongguancun, from cutting-edge research capabilities to startup teams, large enterprise headquarters, government management departments, and public platforms, the collaborative radius is very short, and the acquisition of talent, scene validation, and ecological collaboration are extremely efficient, providing a fertile ground for many AI companies like Xian Yuan Technology to grow rapidly.

The reporter learned from the forum that Haidian has gathered over 2,000 AI companies, 26 unicorn companies, and registered 130 large models, with the scale of the core AI industry exceeding 350 billion yuan, accounting for 30% of the national total. Zhang Ge, secretary of the Haidian District Committee, stated that AI is on a clear path from “technology breakthroughs” to “industrial implementation,” and Haidian will accelerate the construction of a full-stack independent innovation system for AI, striving to create a world-class AI highland.

Building a world-class AI innovation belt.

If in other cities, you wanted to invite a top AI professor for coffee, it might take you half a day crossing the bustling city to reach the university town. To find a reliable computing power supplier and a large model company for cooperation on the same day, you might have to drive around for tens of kilometers, wasting half a day. But in Haidian, all this is compressed into an incredible scale — 10 minutes.

How can urban built-up areas evolve and continue to progress amid the wave of the artificial intelligence revolution? Recently, the “Centennial Beijing-Zhangjiakou AI Innovation Belt” provided the answer. At the AI Open Source Frontier Forum, Haidian District announced that it is officially soliciting comprehensive planning proposals for the world-class AI innovation belt — the Centennial Beijing-Zhangjiakou AI Innovation Belt, driven by both municipal and district levels.

According to preliminary planning, the northern part of the Centennial Beijing-Zhangjiakou AI Innovation Belt will build a full-stack independent innovation system around Xuebei Garden, creating an innovation source “nuclear explosion point.” The central part will cultivate AI original community, focusing on creating a “near-school innovation ecosystem” within one kilometer of the “Qingbei Science” area, nurturing a world-class innovation ecosystem. The southern part will layout intelligent native new businesses around Dazhongsi. From the Second Ring Road to the Fifth Ring Road, an area of about 37 square kilometers will be planned, with the 10 square kilometers around the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway ruins park being renewed and upgraded, and a batch of AI demonstration scenes will be implemented here. This will create a demonstration benchmark for the integration of AI industry and urban development, assisting Beijing in becoming the world’s leading city in artificial intelligence.