This photo taken on March 20, 2023 shows the servers at Tianjin Artificial Intelligence Computing Center in north China's Tianjin. The Tianjin Artificial Intelligence Computing Center was inaugurated in Tianjin recently. The first batch of 100 petaflops of computing power has been fully loaded and put into operation, and an additional 200 petaflops will be added in the future, providing inclusive public computing services for artificial intelligence (AI) application enterprises, universities and scientific research institutions.(Photo: Xinhua)

China's scale of computing power in 2023 ranked second in the world and the number of domestic artificial intelligence (AI) enterprises surpassed 4,400, said China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Friday, indicating steady progress across the country's key technology sectors. 

China has been implementing digital technologies in its industries via various technologies such as cloud computing, big data, industrial robots and software, officials from the MIIT told a press conference on Friday. 

As the end of 2023, the number of 5G base stations across the country reached 3.377 million, further ensuring the operation of the nation's network infrastructure. The number of 5G mobile phone users has reached 805 million nationwide, and 5G directly driven economic output hit 1.86 trillion yuan ($261.20 billion) in 2023 according to analysis, up 29 percent from the level in 2022, said the MIIT. 

5G technology now has been applied to 71 of 97 categories of the national economy, said Xin Guobin, vice minister of industry and information technology, adding that the country's innovation capabilities such as satellite phone, 6G, quantum communication and AI were largely increased. 

In terms of the development of China's industrial internet, the core industry scale of the sector is expected to reach 1.35 trillion yuan in 2023, which further pushed investment of over 170 billion yuan nationwide based on the supply and demand of enterprises, said Zhao Zhiguo, chief engineer and spokesperson of the MIIT.

"China has issued a list of 300 factories equipped with 5G technology with total investment of nearly 10 billion yuan in serving multiple phases of manufacturing industrial chain, and supporting the operation of infrastructure, green service, consumption and security," said Zhao. 

Global Times