DeepSeek Will Pre-Train V5 on Huawei’s Ascend Chips, Reports Say
Cailian Press said V5 would use the Ascend 950 as its core training chip, with the project pointing to 2027; Ascend has so far mainly run inference.
INTELLIGENCE ON CHINA’S TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION
China is building AI as industrial infrastructure. We track it and analyze what it means.
Daily news, structured databases and research-grade analysis on the models, companies and policies behind China’s AI economy.Daily news, databases and analysis on China’s AI economy.
EF MODELS · OUR DATABASE · AS OF 4 NOVEF MODELS · OUR DATABASE
1,139MODEL LINES
Chinese AI model lines from 130 developers, tracked version by version, each release with the evidence behind it.Chinese AI model lines from 130 developers, each release with its evidence.
130
DEVELOPERSDEVELOPERS
6,228
MODEL VERSIONSVERSIONS
9,149
DATED RELEASESRELEASES
SOURCE: EF MODELS · AS OF 4 NOV 2026
Explore EF Models →COMPUTE · AI COMPUTING POWER · UPDATED 20 OCTAI COMPUTING POWER · UPDATED 20 OCT
+146%IN A YEAR
China’s AI computing capacity reached 2,592 exaflops at the end of September 2026, more than five times the level at the end of 2024.China’s AI computing capacity: 2,592 exaflops at end-September 2026, over five times end-2024.
SOURCE: MIIT (opens in a new tab), 20 OCT 2026 · “INTELLIGENT COMPUTING” (智能算力) · 1 EXAFLOP = 10¹⁸ OPERATIONS PER SECONDSOURCE: MIIT (opens in a new tab), 20 OCT 2026 · 智能算力
CAPITAL · ALIBABA, TENCENT, BAIDU · Q2 2026 RESULTSCAPITAL · Q2 2026 RESULTS
RMB131.9bn
Capital spending by Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu in the second quarter of 2026, up 114% on a year earlier.Capital spending by Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu in Q2 2026, up 114% on a year earlier.
SOURCE: COMPANY RESULTS; EF CALCULATION · CALENDAR QUARTERSSOURCE: COMPANY RESULTS; EF CALCULATION
ROBOTS · INDUSTRIAL ROBOT OUTPUT · UPDATED 19 OCTINDUSTRIAL ROBOTS · UPDATED 19 OCT
794,781ROBOTS
Industrial robots made in China in January–September 2026: already more than in all of 2025, and up 29.1% on a year earlier.Made in China in Jan–Sep 2026: already more than all of 2025, up 29.1%.
556,369
773,074
794,781
2024
2025
2026 JAN–SEP
SOURCE: NBS (opens in a new tab), 19 OCT 2026 · ENTERPRISES ABOVE DESIGNATED SIZE · GROWTH AS PUBLISHED BY NBSSOURCE: NBS (opens in a new tab), 19 OCT 2026
Today on the frontier
Nvidia Tells Cloud Partners to Sell at Least 51% of Services to Non-Chinese Firms
The rule, passed on verbally since the summer and applied globally, targets a route Chinese AI developers use to rent computing power abroad.
China’s Economic Planner Vows Faster Work on a Comprehensive AI Law
The NDRC also wants AI developers to disclose safety risks, report incidents and vulnerabilities, and test new services in sector-specific regulatory sandboxes.
ALSO TODAY
- MARKETSChina’s Financial Regulator Says AI Investment Is Overly Concentrated as STAR 50 Falls 3.8%
- CHIPS & COMPUTEMeituan Says It Trained 1.6-Trillion-Parameter LongCat-2.5 Model Entirely on Chinese Chips
- MODELSAlibaba Pushes Open-Source AI at Wuzhen as Qwen Passes 4 Billion Downloads
- CHIPS & COMPUTEBaidu Denies Report That Kunlunxin’s Hong Kong IPO Could Slip to 2027
- CHIPS & COMPUTEInference Chipmaker Moffett AI Raises Nearly RMB1 Billion for the Second Time in Five Months
- APPLIED AIMercedes-Benz Puts ByteDance’s Doubao in Its China-Developed E-Class Cockpit
- APPLIED AISenseTime’s SenseNova 6.8 Flash Adds Long-Term Memory and Builds Animated Slides
EF MODELS · THE CHINA AI MODEL DATABASE
The whole Chinese model universe, in one place
Organizations, model lines, families, versions and every release event, each traced back to its source.
Latest release events
LIVE FROM EF MODELS · NEWEST FIRST| DATE ↓ | ORGANIZATION | MODEL | EVENT | WEIGHTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-31 | Yuanshi Intelligence | RWKV7-G1-1.5B | UPDATE | OPEN |
| 2026-10-31 | Yuanshi Intelligence | RWKV7-G1-13.3B | UPDATE | OPEN |
| 2026-10-31 | Yuanshi Intelligence | RWKV7-G1-2.9B | UPDATE | OPEN |
| 2026-10-31 | Yuanshi Intelligence | RWKV7-G1-7.2B | UPDATE | OPEN |
| 2026-10-28 | Kuaishou Technology | PixelMoE-L | WEIGHTS RELEASE | OPEN |
SHOWING 5 OF 9,149 RELEASE EVENTSFull history with a paid plan →
Who builds China’s models
BIG TECH
AlibabaByteDanceTencentBaiduHuawei
AI LABS
DeepSeekMoonshot AIZhipu AIMiniMaxStepFunBaichuan
RESEARCH INSTITUTES
BAAIShanghai AI LabTsinghua
LISTED AI COMPANIES
iFlytekSenseTime
Coming next to EF Intelligence: EF Companies, then EF Robotics.
The intelligence platform
One account across every database. Each model and company links to the stories and data behind it.
EF Models
LIVE · BETAEvery Chinese AI model, from organization to release event, with its evidence trail.
- ORGANIZATIONS
- 130
- MODEL LINES
- 1,139
- RELEASE EVENTS
- 9,149
EF Companies
NEXTProfiles of China’s AI and technology companies, linked to the models they build: ownership, funding, listings, and the evidence behind each fact.
Get early accessEF Robotics
PLANNEDChina’s robot makers and their products, from industrial robots to humanoids, tracked release by release.
Get early accessANALYSIS · COMING MONDAY 9 NOVEMBER
China Chose a Different AI Race. Now It Is Being Tested on Its Own Terms.
The West measures the race in frontier benchmarks. China is treating AI as general-purpose infrastructure, diffused across factories, logistics, finance and government. That changes who wins, and how to read the data.
More on Analysis →
Dr. Anders C. Johansson
Founder, EastFrontier
- Deputy Director, Center for Asian Studies, Stockholm School of Economics
- Visiting positions at Harvard, Columbia, Peking University and Fudan
- 30+ peer-reviewed publications; author of a 2022 Vinnova-funded report on China’s AI ecosystem
- Three decades across China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia
Built for people who need to be right about China
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