It is said that this prefecture-level city is suitable for living, working, and developing AI.
When AI answers the question of "the most livable cities", Zhuhai ranks among the top.
This city, well - known for its livability, has found its unique competitiveness in the development of the AI industry.
Avoiding direct competition in general - purpose AI, Zhuhai focuses on local scenarios such as smart cities, smart homes, medical AI, and marine technology, and deeply integrates AI technology with urban governance and people's livelihood services. Its relatively small administrative area allows for low trial - and - error costs for AI applications in Zhuhai and provides broader feasibility for subsequent replication of these applications to other cities or regions in the Greater Bay Area.
Although it has a vast sea area of more than 9,000 square kilometers, Zhuhai is the prefecture - level city with the smallest land area in Guangdong Province. However, its economic foundation as a special economic zone and its beautiful coastal scenery have given Zhuhai a strong presence. The leisurely pace of life here coexists harmoniously with the ever - changing technological innovation.
Just as the people of Zhuhai know how to enjoy life, "life" has become the keyword for Zhuhai's AI.
People cycling by the sea in Zhuhai (Photo source: Times Weekly, taken by Wang Chenting)
01 Blossoming of "Small Models"
In an office building in the center of Zhuhai, a neat and bright exhibition hall showcases various artificial intelligence application models and products, such as smart education, industrial inspection, and smart healthcare. The real - time demonstrations of multiple AI models are like a preview of the future.
The open - plan office is divided into several areas, where research teams with different backgrounds work together. On an entire wall dedicated to intellectual property, patent certificates are neatly arranged.
This is "Modulus Space", the first high - ground for large - model applications in Zhuhai.
"'Modulus Space' has two main positioning points," the person - in - charge of "Modulus Space" told a reporter from Times Weekly. "The first is an incubation space for the large - model industry, and the second is a platform for industrial application transformation. It brings together enterprises and products related to large models, AI, and digitalization for exchanges and cooperation in areas such as technology R & D, model application, computing power scheduling, data trading, talent training, and application transformation."
From the only large - numerical model in China that has been filed with the Cyberspace Administration of China, to Archie Robot, the interactive screen application for popularizing marine life knowledge in the AI Oceanarium, and the intelligent freight platform, and then to the Modulus Supermarket, which brings together more than 140 vertical models and AI hardware products in niche industries.
For model enterprises, finding suitable application scenarios for testing and verification is particularly crucial. Helping enterprises find models and helping models find scenarios to promote the integration of modulus is precisely the purpose of "Modulus Space".
In the view of this person - in - charge, the future battlefield for models will be in vertical models. "The market pattern of general - purpose large - scale foundation models has basically taken shape. To be honest, not many can compete. So in the future, everyone's main focus and battlefield will be on small models. We hope to provide better services for model enterprises through the 'Modulus Space' platform and better match application scenarios."
Models on display in "Modulus Space" (Photo source: Times Weekly, taken by Wang Chenting)
Focusing on "small models" is the differentiated competition route chosen by Zhuhai.
According to Zhuhai's plan in 2024, it aims to attract more than 20 vertical and scenario - based large - model enterprises to settle in the city throughout the year and strive to build Zhuhai into a well - known "Model Capital" in China. As of now, vertical large - scale models such as "WPS AI" of Kingsoft Office and "Yuanguang Zhiyan" of Yuanguang Software have been commercially launched first. The multilingual AI engine of Shenyi Information and the human resources large - scale model of Biyou Technology are also playing enabling roles in their respective fields.
Actually, building vertical models is not an easy task.
"For example, building an entire AI large - scale model is like building a house. The foundation is the algorithm, the steel and cement are the data, and computing power is needed, which is like the assistance of construction workers or large machinery. Whether the final building is a commercial residential building or an apartment building corresponds to different model products," Lin Yuchu, the founder of Shenyi Technology, told a reporter from Times Weekly.
Lin Yuchu believes that in the artificial intelligence industry, most of the core innovations in algorithms are led by a few top - notch scientists, while the collection and processing of data are more like "dirty and tiring work". Adhering to the concept of "doing AI with an industrial mindset", he chose to start with data in 2018 and gradually developed two business branches. One is to sell processed data to customers, and the other is to use the existing data to build vertical models.
Shenyi Technology first chose the Portuguese - language vertical model track.
Adjacent to Macau, relying on the Sino - Portuguese natural language resources from the scientific research strength of Macau's universities and the data annotation of a large number of linguistics talents, Shenyi Technology has developed the first industry - level large - language model targeting the Portuguese - speaking countries' market in China and started its commercial implementation. Hoping to explore more model products beyond translation, Shenyi Technology is planning to change its company name to "Shenyi".
Although it is constantly changing, artificial intelligence is still a young industry.
Jinzhiwei has also experienced a transformation similar to that of Shenyi Technology.
Jinzhiwei has applied digital employees to multiple positions in the company (Photo source: Times Weekly, taken by Wang Chenting)
Liao Wanli, the chairman of Jinzhiwei Information Technology Co., Ltd., told a reporter from Times Weekly that since the establishment of the startup team in 2009, Jinzhiwei has focused on the automation and intelligentization track and has become a pioneer in the RPA field. Simply put, RPA can imitate the interaction between users and terminals such as computers and take over a series of repetitive operations that were originally performed by humans.
After entering the AI era, higher efficiency has become possible. Through the integration of large models and RPA, Jinzhiwei has upgraded the underlying technology of its "digital employees" to AI Agents. Currently, AI Agent digital employees have been widely implemented in the government affairs, finance, manufacturing and other industries in Zhuhai and even across the country.
For the younger entrant, Wujie Fangzhou, the choice of the business direction is crucial.
Wujie Fangzhou was established in 2023. The startup team has a deep background in large enterprises and has more considerations in terms of business models. After successfully launching the Ascend cloud - native pharmaceutical R & D large - scale model in the following year of its establishment, Li Zhuo, the partner and business director of Wujie Fangzhou, told a reporter from Times Weekly that the enterprise is currently deploying in fields such as multimodal models and intelligent hardware.
"I think for the vertical model field, the ideal model is to establish in - depth cooperation with leading companies in the industry. We are actually not very interested in the kind of 'business' where we build a customized system for the other party once and the cooperation ends after the delivery," Li Zhuo said.
In his view, what is truly valuable is that the other party can open up its professional resources in the industry. Based on these resources, Wujie Fangzhou can conduct customized training and jointly develop a system, and then promote it to customers across the entire industry. "We can also continuously provide technical updates and iterative support in the future. This kind of long - term binding and co - growth cooperation method is more meaningful and sustainable."
Although their development paths are different, several AI enterprises have started from Zhuhai and found their own positions in the industry. Driven by the pioneers, Zhuhai, the "Model Capital", is gradually rising.
Xiangzhou District in Zhuhai has built a supply - demand platform to serve enterprises (Photo source: Times Weekly, taken by Wang Chenting)
02 The "Million - Yuan Reward" More Than 30 Years Ago
In the early 1990s, after graduating from university, Liao Wanli was assigned to work in a bank in Zhuhai. That year, his unit alone recruited more than 100 college students. Zhuhai was an economic high - ground longed for by young people across the country.
That was one of the most glorious times for Zhuhai. It was established as a city in 1979 and was designated as a special economic zone the following year. After more than a decade of rapid economic development, Zhuhai deeply felt the preciousness of scientific and technological talents and began to vigorously recruit them.
On March 9, 1992, Zhuhai held its first reward conference for outstanding contributions to scientific and technological progress. It was the first in the country to heavily reward scientific and technological personnel with outstanding contributions, with the highest reward being worth more than 1.6 million yuan in total.
The "million - yuan reward" at that time shocked the national scientific and technological community. According to incomplete statistics, in 1992 alone, Zhuhai introduced 28 science - and - technology - based enterprises with a total investment of 600 million yuan and received more than 1,000 letters from home and abroad, including more than 500 from overseas students.
Now, as Zhuhai commemorates the 45th anniversary of the establishment of the special economic zone, against the background of the province - wide campaign of "One Million Talents Gather in South Guangdong" in Guangdong, Zhuhai has put forward the slogan of "Come to Zhuhai First from All Corners of the Country".
"From being the first to offer million - yuan rewards to scientific and technological talents in the 1990s, to formulating the country's first talent - related legislation and releasing the 'Zhuhai Talent Plan', and then to being the first in the country to implement 12 - year free education, providing 'free choice of high - quality school places' for the children of talents and a 90% medical insurance reimbursement ratio and other exclusive guarantees, and this year introducing the most generous housing guarantee policy of 'one exemption and two reductions' for young talents in the country, Zhuhai has sincerely implemented the concept of 'regarding talents as treasures'," Huang Zhenqiu, the vice - mayor of the Zhuhai Municipal Government, said in April this year.
The early gathering of talents laid the foundation for Zhuhai's scientific and technological innovation. The four leading industries that Zhuhai currently focuses on developing, namely the new - generation information technology, new energy, integrated circuits, and biomedicine and health, already showed signs at that time. As of 2024, Zhuhai's per - capita GDP reached 178,700 yuan, ranking second in Guangdong and among the top 20 in the country.
The Zhuhai Airshow has become one of the city's calling cards (Photo source: Times Weekly, taken by Wang Chenting)
In addition to the city's emphasis on talents and its solid economic foundation, the livability of the city is another major reason for young people who come to Zhuhai to choose to stay.
Liao Wanli has also left Zhuhai several times. Due to work changes, he moved around in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other places, but finally chose to return to Zhuhai to start a business and founded Jinzhiwei Information Technology Co., Ltd.
"I think the livable environment is particularly suitable for the aggregation of the intelligent industry. For example, we introduced a high - level talent from Meta last year, and he really likes Zhuhai," Liao Wanli told a reporter from Times Weekly.
Not only is it livable, but another advantage of Zhuhai that attracts AI entrepreneurs is its geographical location.
Zhuhai is the only city on the Chinese mainland that is connected to both Hong Kong and Macau by land. Through the Hong Kong - Zhuhai - Macau Bridge, it takes 5 minutes to reach Macau and 35 minutes to reach Hong Kong. The one - hour economic circle, commuting circle, and living circle in the Guangdong - Hong Kong - Macao Greater Bay Area have become a reality in Zhuhai.
"Zhuhai is very friendly to enterprises that want to go global. It is located in the core area of the Greater Bay Area and is close to Macau and Hong Kong, which coincides with our company's concept of 'connecting the world with AI'," Lin Yuchu said.
Zhuhai is adjacent to Macau and Hong Kong, with obvious geographical advantages (Photo source: Times Weekly, taken by Li Guang)
03 How Far Is It from the "Cloud - based Smart City"?}
Just as Hangzhou was able to nurture the "Six Little Dragons", the support of the local government is extremely crucial for the development of AI enterprises.
"For artificial intelligence enterprises, computing power is a major expense. Previously, there were reports that Zhuhai offers significant computing - power subsidies to enterprises, about 10% - 20% higher than that of other domestic cities at the same time. This is very attractive to enterprises," Li Zhuo said directly to a reporter from Times Weekly.
According to the "Several Measures for Promoting the High - Quality Development of the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Industry in Zhuhai" (hereinafter referred to as the "Several Measures") released in May this year, Zhuhai has set up "computing - power vouchers" with a maximum total amount of 500 million yuan to reduce the cost of enterprises using intelligent computing power. Eligible enterprises can receive "computing - power vouchers" equivalent to 50% of the actual cost of purchasing computing power, with a maximum annual usage of 10 million yuan in "computing - power vouchers".
In addition, last year, Xiangzhou District in Zhuhai introduced several measures to promote the development of new - quality productive forces. Qualified enterprises can receive a