--- title: "Zhejiang backs its AI ambitions with a 27-point plan and a ¥1-trillion industry target" date: 2026-10-28 category: Policy & Governance site: NeuroAI canonical: https://neuroai.site/a/na-policy-zhejiang-ai-measures language: en --- # Zhejiang backs its AI ambitions with a 27-point plan and a ¥1-trillion industry target > Zhejiang Province's effective support measures aim for over ¥1 trillion in core AI revenue by 2027, plus a ¥10-billion fund cluster — a provincial blueprint, not a national law. A provincial government decides it does not want to be the place where AI talent trains but leaves. Zhejiang, home to Alibaba and a dense hardware supply chain, has put numbers on that worry. ## Key takeaways - The Zhejiang Provincial People's Government issued *Several Measures to Support AI Innovation and Development* (关于支持人工智能创新发展的若干措施) on 17 April 2025; the measures took effect on 31 May 2025 and remain valid through 31 December 2027. - Target: by 2027, the province's above-scale AI core-industry operating revenue should exceed ¥1 trillion (≈ US$140 billion / HK$1.1 trillion). - It pledges a fund cluster of more than ¥100 billion (≈ US$1.4 billion) and aims to cultivate 3 "chain-leader" firms at the ¥100-billion level and 30 at the ¥10-billion level. - The document is an in-force provincial support package (27 measures across 6 areas), distinct from national AI laws or the Shenzhen pioneer-city plan. ## What the province is promising The measures run to six areas and 27 specific items. The headline is the revenue goal: above-scale AI core-industry operating revenue above ¥1 trillion by 2027, and above ¥1.2 trillion (≈ US$169 billion) by 2030. Those are deliberately round, directional targets rather than legally enforceable obligations. On industrial structure, the plan wants a cluster centered on Hangzhou and Ningbo, spanning chips, servers, optical networks, system software, cloud platforms, large models (大模型) and smart terminals. By 2027 it aims for 3 "chain-leader" enterprises at the ¥100-billion (≈ US$14 billion) scale and 30 "leading" enterprises at the ¥10-billion (≈ US$1.4 billion) scale. ## The money Zhejiang commits to a fund cluster of more than ¥100 billion (≈ US$1.4 billion) built on its "4+1" special funds and a third-phase provincial science-and-technology mother fund focused on AI. The language stresses "patient capital" — backing early, small, long-horizon and hard-tech ventures across their life cycles, and trying to land sub-funds of national venture vehicles in the province. Local governments are also encouraged to subsidize R&D: places may grant fiscal support to firms whose R&D spending exceeds 3% of operating revenue and grows more than 20% year on year, proportional to the prior year's R&D spend. ## Talent and open source The measures simplify review for top AI talent — exceptional recruits can be assessed on arrival, and special cases can skip centralized review and be folded in by procedure. The province targets bringing in more than 10 top AI talents per year. On open source, the plan pushes model-openness ecosystems, supports open-source communities publishing models and offering model-as-a-service, and encourages cross-border cooperation. It also promises IP protection: using the Madrid trademark system for global filing and running infringement early-warning analysis for large models. ## What the measures emphasize beyond cash The 27 items are not only about money. On enterprise cultivation, the province promises support for "single-champion" manufacturers, national "little giant" (专精特新) firms and provincial hidden champions, and tells local governments to court high-growth firms with core technology. On open source, it backs communities that publish models and offer model-as-a-service, and encourages cross-border cooperation so domestic models gain international exposure. On intellectual property, beyond the Madrid trademark route and infringement early-warning, the plan calls for research into frontier IP-protection strategies for large models, signaling a push from "technology leadership" toward "rule leadership." On talent, beyond the 10-top-experts-per-year goal, it streamlines approvals so specialists can be brought in as needed rather than through slow centralized rounds. ## Why this is a provincial story, not a national one China's AI rulebook is mostly written in Beijing, but the money and the incentives increasingly come from provinces competing for clusters. Zhejiang's package is one of several regional plays; it is narrower in scope than a national statute and explicitly time-bound to end-2027. Readers should read it as industrial policy — a subsidy-and-targets document — not as regulation that binds companies outside Zhejiang. ## Honest limitations This article draws on the full text published on zj.gov.cn and a provincial enterprise-service mirror that restates the same figures. We did not verify how much of the ¥100-billion fund cluster is already committed versus pledged, nor whether the 2027 revenue target is on track; these are the province's own forecasts. The "effective" date and validity window are taken from the government text. We have not compared Zhejiang's measures line-by-line against other provincial plans such as Shanghai's or Jiangsu's, and exchange-rate conversions use an approximate 7.1 RMB per US dollar. ## What readers can do now - If you run an AI firm, check whether your business lines map to Zhejiang's priority sectors (chips, cloud, large models, smart terminals) for subsidy and fund access. - If you are an investor, treat the ¥100-billion fund cluster as a signal of provincial deal flow and watch for sub-fund launches. - If you track China's AI map, compare provincial packages like this one against national plans to see where subsidy competition is heating up. --- Published by NeuroAI (https://neuroai.site/) — https://neuroai.site/a/na-policy-zhejiang-ai-measures Free to quote with attribution and a link to the original.