Suzhou to propel AI industry growth

As the national pilot zone for new generation artificial intelligence innovation and development, Suzhou in Jiangsu province is tailoring support policies to boost the high-quality growth of the AI industry, offering up to 100 million yuan ($13.77 million) in project funding for both local and international talents.

The initiative was unveiled at the "Artificial Intelligence+" Innovation and Development Promotion Conference in Suzhou, which was held on Friday. The policy is designed to fully back top talents in the AI field and attract and nurture individuals at the forefront of AI technology globally, with a focus on those holding key core technologies capable of making significant impact and breakthroughs.

The support package includes project funding of up to 100 million yuan and a housing subsidy of 10 million yuan. Customized support will also be provided, including trial equipment, venues and team optimization.

The conference, themed "Jointly Igniting the Future with AI+", drew around 1,000 participants, including national and provincial leaders, representatives from prominent domestic and international AI companies and figures from renowned research institutes and financial institutions.

At the event, Suzhou introduced measures to bolster talent development in the AI sector, comprising nine targeted initiatives focusing on talent recruitment, training, evaluation, incentives and services.

It aims to provide support ranging from 5 million yuan to 100 million yuan for entities engaging in national major AI projects and application scenarios, particularly those involving innovative applications of large models.

Suzhou Mayor Wu Qingwen highlighted Suzhou's economic and industrial significance, emphasizing the city's strategic advantages in industrial scale, diverse application scenarios and robust innovation dynamics.

Suzhou has attracted over 2,100 AI-related enterprises, including 32 listed companies, seven global unicorns, along with 477 national high-tech firms.

"Suzhou has initially formed a complete industrial chain covering the basic layer, framework layer, model layer and application layer," said Wu. "By 2024, the city achieved a revenue of 236.2 billion yuan, with a growth rate exceeding 20 percent."

The city stands out nationally and globally in developing the AI industry, benefiting from its comprehensive industrial system comprising 35 major categories, 170 subcategories and 515 minor categories, providing a wide range of application scenarios for AI development.

Its service industry is also rapidly advancing, with total retail sales of consumer goods reaching more than 1 trillion yuan in 2024.

Now the artificial intelligence industry in Suzhou covers a wide range of sectors. In core areas such as speech recognition, autonomous driving, machine vision, robotics and large models, a large number of leading enterprises have gathered there.

Suzhou plans to build a national new generation artificial intelligence open innovation platform for language computing and public computing power, and has already laid out facilities such as the Suzhou Artificial Intelligence Computing Center and the Kunshan Smart Computing Center.

It is on track to surpass 300 billion yuan in the AI-related industry scale by 2027, according to the local government.

Zhou Furong and Lu Yujun contributed to this story.