#China

On July 9, 2026, the National Supercomputing Internet core node officially went live in Zhengzhou, offering over 100,000 domestic AI accelerator cards as a pooled computing resource. This milestone marks the largest single domestic AI computing resource pool connected to China's National Supercomputing Internet, significantly boosting the country's sovereign AI compute capabilities and reducing dependence on foreign hardware. The node handles core functions such as operation management, resource scheduling, and integrates supply-demand matching and industry incubation services, aiming to build a nationwide coordinated computing resource system.

China's Ministry of Commerce is considering restricting overseas access to its most advanced AI models, including unreleased ones, and has held meetings with Alibaba, ByteDance, and Zhipu. This policy could reshape global AI competition by limiting technology transfer and potentially triggering reciprocal measures from other nations. The scope of restrictions is still under discussion and may only apply to future models; it remains uncertain whether the rules will be finalized.

A survey of 60 Chinese executives shows firms are reducing Nvidia AI accelerator purchases and plan to allocate 46% of their AI chip budget to domestic alternatives within the next 12 months, up from 30% currently. This shift signals a major realignment in the global AI hardware supply chain, driven by China's data center investment plan and geopolitical tensions, which could significantly impact Nvidia's revenue and accelerate domestic chipmakers like Hygon and Cambricon. China plans to invest roughly 2 trillion yuan ($275 billion) in data centers over the next five years, with at least 80% of core technology sourced domestically, benefiting companies such as Tencent, Alibaba, Huawei, Hygon, and Cambricon.

Chinese policymakers are discussing reducing incentives for researchers to publish in international journals, including lowering the weight of SCI publications in academic promotion and tenure decisions, citing national security concerns over technology leaks. This shift could reshape China's academic evaluation system, reduce international research collaboration, and impact global scientific publishing by potentially diverting high-quality research to domestic Chinese-language journals. The National Natural Science Foundation of China now requires at least 20% of representative papers from funded projects to be published in Chinese-language journals. A materials scientist reported stopping submissions to foreign journals due to vague and tightening security review standards.