Recently, the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) grandly opened in Shanghai. On that day, the conference delivered a substantial "report card": not only was a presidential statement released to build consensus, but the formal establishment of the "World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization" was witnessed, along with a series of pragmatic measures rolled out.

Centered around the theme "Intelligent Partners, Creating the Future Together," this grand event sent a strong signal: global governance of artificial intelligence is no longer limited to verbal discussions and calls for ideas, but has officially entered a new stage of "real action" and implementation.

So, what latest signals do these new achievements actually send? And what direction does it point toward the future of global governance of artificial intelligence? Kingtech explains.

| Not only "open cooperation," but also "secure and controllable"

Xiao Xi, Deputy Director of the Institute for International Governance of Artificial Intelligence at Tsinghua University, pointed out that China has always advocated inclusive and open international cooperation and firmly opposes confining AI technology to a small circle of a few countries.

However, this year's conference also has a very prominent new focus—risk prevention. The rapid development of AI over the past year has also brought some security risks. Therefore, the president's statement at this conference specifically called for the establishment of an "emergency response system" to ensure AI safety and controllability. The newly established "World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization" is precisely a mechanism platform for China to turn this concept into practical action.

Concrete Actions: Helping Developing Countries Bridge the "Digital Intelligence Gap"

To ensure that developing countries do not fall behind in the AI era, the conference announced a series of practical and practical measures:

Training Delivery: AI training quotas are provided to developing countries;

Establishing Centers: Establishing an International Artificial Intelligence Application Cooperation Center;

Promoting Applications: Promoting the implementation of China's meteorological intelligent early warning project "Mazu" in 30 countries.

These measures fully demonstrate that China's firm belief in responding to the Global South's call, uniting the international community, and striving to bridge the "digital intelligence divide" will never change.

| Global AI governance bids farewell to "armchair talk" and enters a new stage of practical implementation

Yao Xu, Secretary-General of the Global AI Innovation Governance Center and Associate Researcher at the Fudan University Development Research Institute, pointed out that in the past, there have been many fragmented international initiatives and rule discussions regarding AI governance. But now, global AI governance has substantially entered a new stage of "practical operation, implementation, and cooperation."

Yao Xu stated that from the Chairman's statement to a series of implementation measures, the three core questions for future development have been well answered:

Who do you serve? Mainly targeting a wide range of developing countries (Global South).

How to do it? The core path is to enhance capacity building in various countries, including achieving international sharing of computing power and sharing of security solutions.

Where is the lever? These pragmatic measures provide a better focus for future global cooperation.

Following last year's release of the "Global Action Plan for AI Governance," China has released two more major documents this year:

"Action Plan for Artificial Intelligence Cooperative Development": From the perspectives of data, computing power, and governance, it proposes eight specific actions including high-quality data supply and inclusive intelligent computing power.

"International Action Plan for Ethical Governance of Artificial Intelligence": Focuses on ethical governance and risk prevention throughout the entire AI lifecycle, calling on countries to strengthen policy coordination.

From "global governance" to "cooperative development" and "ethical governance," China is continuously contributing Chinese wisdom to improve the global AI governance system. Data shows that the cumulative downloads of China's open-source AI large models have exceeded 10 billion, firmly holding the top spot globally.

Among the results released at this conference, "open source" became an absolutely high-frequency term. China's encouragement of open source and openness, and promotion of shared and co-built development are precisely based on the concept of inclusiveness and sharing, actively responding to the United Nations' initiative, striving to empower global sustainable development through artificial intelligence technology.

| AI terminals are entering a critical window period, requiring breaking down barriers and strengthening the industry

Wang Jiangping, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and former Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, believes that this is a critical window for the development of AI terminals, and the industry must seize the opportunity. He put forward the following core suggestions for the development of AI terminals:

AI terminals cannot operate independently; cooperation platforms must be built. It is recommended to leverage the linking role of industry organizations to jointly conduct research with upstream and downstream enterprises to address common issues such as intelligent agent interoperability and software-hardware compatibility. Only by breaking down cross-enterprise and cross-platform technological and ecological barriers and achieving complementary advantages can this work be done well.

Wang Jiangping pointed out that in recent years, China's AI terminal industry has shown positive changes in five areas:

Market boom: By 2025, the penetration rate of AI smartphones and AI computers has reached about 40%, becoming key tools for boosting productivity. At the same time, shipments of AI glasses surged by over 200%, and many innovative products such as AI toys and AI earphones emerged.

New technological breakthroughs: On-device AI chip performance is rapidly improving, providing powerful computing support; End-side models are continuously iterating, and intelligent agents are deeply integrated with operating systems, laying a solid foundation for AI applications.

Major industrial upgrades: Leading terminal manufacturers have made AI terminals their core strategies, traditional terminal industries are accelerating their transformation and upgrading to AI terminals, and model manufacturers and application service providers are also continuously increasing investment.

New application landscape: The application ecosystem centered on "agents" is growing rapidly, with terminals becoming smarter (capable of natural interaction and autonomous learning). At the same time, it has also given rise to new business models such as intelligent agent subscription services.

New Standards Lead: With support from relevant departments, a series of national standards such as the "Intelligent Classification of AI Terminals" have been successively introduced, providing unified standard support for measuring the intelligence level of products.

Kingtech Perspective | The AI industry has entered a new cycle of balancing "compliance and going global."

The establishment of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization and the release of two major action plans mark the AI industry's shift from "wild growth" to "global collaborative governance." For Chinese companies, going global must place "compliance and inclusiveness" at the core of their strategy. At the same time, "open source" is the core global competitiveness of Chinese AI, and the prosperity of the related open-source ecosystem will significantly lower the AI application threshold across society.

Focusing on hardware infrastructure for "on-device AI" and "industrial-grade intelligent agents."

WAIC has clearly designated AI terminals as a critical window period, meaning AI is moving from the "cloud" to the "physical world."

Investors are advised to focus on two main directions: first, the "water sellers" of on-device AI, including hardware upgrades such as AI SoC chips, on-device storage, cooling, and precision structural components, which are the foundational foundation supporting the boom in AI smartphones, AI PCs, and AI glasses;

Second, industrial-level applications with "AI-native" attributes, such as intelligent agents for B-end scenarios like industrial manufacturing and healthcare. This type of B2B business has higher barriers and clearer commercial monetization paths, serving as a definite main theme for future performance realization.

Be alert to ecological barriers and seek breakthroughs in "connectivity."

The official statement clearly states the need to break down cross-enterprise and cross-platform technological and ecological barriers. In the current AI terminal market, ecosystem-leading companies that can first achieve hardware-software compatibility and promote intelligent interconnection will gain the largest market share. Investors should focus on leading platforms that possess standards setting capabilities and ecosystem appeal at the operating system, underlying protocol, or core middleware level.

Under the global governance framework, companies with core technologies, adherence to open-source openness, and deep cultivation of industrial-level applications will truly enjoy the long slopes and thick snow of the AI era. Following the three major trends of "compliance, open source, and on-device implementation" is currently the most certain investment theme.