Star founders, Beijing officials and deep-pocketed financiers converge on Shanghai by the thousands this weekend to attend China’s most important artificial intelligence summit. At the top of the agenda: how to propel Beijing’s ambitions to leapfrog the U.S. in AI — and profit off that drive.

The World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), which has featured billionaire entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Jack Ma in years past, was devised to showcase the cutting-edge of Chinese technology. This year’s attendance may hit a record as it’s taking place at a critical juncture in the U.S.-Chinese tech rivalry.

This week, U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his so-called AI Action Plan — a sort of call to arms to ensure the country keeps its lead in the post-ChatGPT epoch. At the same time, the emergence of DeepSeek in January galvanized a generation of Chinese developers to ride a nationwide investment and innovation wave. From Alibaba Group Holding to fledgling firms such as Minimax, the country’s AI aspirants have since moved aggressively to try and close the gap with the likes of OpenAI and Google.