Shanghai aims to 'unlock' big ideas of AI

At an auto plant in Puebla, a historic city in central Mexico, a digital system introduced this year by a Chinese company has significantly improved production efficiency.

The system's provider is Black Lake Technologies, an industrial internet company based in Shanghai's Changning district.

Founded in 2016, Black Lake is currently developing industrial-grade artificial intelligence agents and actively expanding its overseas customer base, promoting a new "Made-in-China" model of intelligent manufacturing abroad.

In the domestic market, the company also has big ambitions.

"There are 5 million factories across China, but Black Lake has only served 30,000 of them so far," said Zhou Yuxiang, founder and CEO of Black Lake, expressing optimism about the company's growth potential in the coming decade.

In 2021, the company relocated its headquarters to Changning's "Silicon Alley", a technological innovation block that has revitalized the concept of a traditional tech park by building an urban innovation ecosystem that brings together companies across the industrial chain.

However, Silicon Alley is only one example of Shanghai's wider efforts to attract AI entrepreneurs and startups through its friendly policies and strong computing capacity.

Chen Jie, vice-mayor of Shanghai, said at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Global Developer Pioneers Summit last month that Shanghai is determined to become a city that best understands developers and provides them with solid and welcoming support.