AI race enters a new phase
A robot band from LinkerBot performs at a robot 6S store on Jan. 29, 2026 in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province of China.
Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images
Hi, this is Evelyn, writing to you from Beijing. Welcome to the latest edition of The China Connection — a succinct snapshot of what I’m seeing and hearing from local businesses.
Today, I unpack what’s next for Chinese companies using AI to make money. As more than one executive tells me, large language models like DeepSeek are no longer enough. What are they looking for instead?
The big story
Just as Chinese AI chatbots similar to ChatGPT seem to be catching up to their U.S. peers, a new race is shaping up: industry-specific artificial intelligence.
That’s what companies in China are focusing on, as they pursue AI-driven revenue growth. It’s a step forward from the broader category of large-language models such as DeepSeek.
Alibaba.com, a platform that connects millions of small businesses in the U.S. and Europe with China-based suppliers, is looking to partner with U.S. AI models to handle the legal, financial and dealmaking aspects of doing business around the world.
That’s what Kuo Zhang, president of the business, told me. It comes as Alibaba last week launched an AI-integrated upgrade to its Accio sourcing platform called Accio Work. It lets buyers search for parts and customized products on the platform. The tool can also process customs paperwork autonomously and calculate profit margins for businesses, Zhang said.
That’s critical in a time of tariff volatility.
Accio already has millions of monthly active users and hopes to grow to tens of millions of monthly active users by this time next year, Zhang added.
Partnering with overseas AI to understand country-specific law, finance or human resources laws and regulations will enhance the product further, Zhang said, allowing individual entrepreneurs to quickly turn their ideas into products they can sell.
It’s not just Alibaba that’s searching for U.S. partners and specialized AI.
Li Renhan, founder of three-year-old startup MagicPen Bio, produces plants that glow in the dark, providing an eco-friendly form of lighting. That’s thanks to AI-powered biological research from Chinese agricultural researchers that combines the naturally occurring luminescence of fireflies and fungi with landscaping plants.
On the business front, Li told me the company plans to finalize partnerships in the U.S. and the Middle East this year for local sales, and is looking for more U.S. businesses to work with. He predicts global revenue of 200 million yuan ($28.94 million) this year.
Rather than exporting the fragile plants, Li said the startup is selling the underlying technology, for which it has about 20 patents.
Patents for sale
It’s an intellectual property trend that China is promoting at a high level. This year’s state-organized Zhongguancun Forum, at which Li was presenting last week, described its expo pavilion as an international technology…
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