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World AI Conference 2026 in Shanghai Hosts 1,100 Companies and 300 Product Debuts

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The 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, known as WAIC, ran from July 17 to 20 at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center, according to the Shanghai Municipal People's Government. The event was held under the theme "AI Partnership for a Brighter Future," the city government said.

For the first time, the exhibition covered more than 100,000 square meters, according to the government's guide to the show. More than 1,100 companies took part with over 3,000 exhibits, including more than 300 products making their global debut, according to the same guide. The Associated Press also reported that more than 1,100 companies participated.

Robots in working scenarios

Robotics took up a large share of the floor. The Shanghai government said a zone called Model Era, City of Partners featured more than 300 robots in dynamic application scenarios rather than static displays. In one demonstration, six robots were set to collaborate for 15 hours to build a model of the Great Wall from 80,000 blocks, according to the city's guide.

The guide also highlighted a smart pharmacy system deployed at Guo Da Drugstore outlets, which the government said uses embodied AI to power robots from multiple manufacturers.

An Associated Press photo report from the conference showed exhibits from robotics companies including Unitree Robotics, Pudu Robotics, Efort, Magiclab, Huayan Robotics and DaxRobotics, alongside computing hardware from Huawei.

Computing and devices

Infrastructure for training and running AI models was a second focus. The city's guide listed Huawei's Atlas 950 SuperPoD, which it said combines 1,024 Ascend AI processors across 16 cabinets, and Sugon's 8000 system, which the guide described as a fully domestic AI supercluster with 100,000 accelerators.

AI agent products on display included Baidu's DuMate, Kingsoft Office's WPS Lingxi and Tencent's WorkBuddy, according to the guide, which also listed smart glasses from Qwen and iFlytek and a brain-computer interface gaming demonstration that used an EEG cap.

On the calendar

The next major robotics show on China's calendar was the World Robot Conference, held in Beijing from August 19 to 23, according to the Beijing Municipal Government, which said its exhibition halls would cover applications in manufacturing, logistics, retail, healthcare, safety and rescue.

Sources