The surging wave of artificial intelligence is spawning entirely new forms of entrepreneurship and industrial paradigms. The "One-Person Company" (OPC) model, leveraging its unique advantages of being lightweight, intelligent, and highly flexible, is emerging as a new form of smart economy development in the AI era. Xiong'an is now focusing on the full-chain needs of digital nomads and OPC entrepreneurial development, accelerating the construction of a policy-friendly, entrepreneurship-friendly, lifestyle-friendly, and socially-friendly environment to build the nation's most influential OPC community. Our reporter has ventured into Xiong'an New Area and other locations, using individual OPC entrepreneurs as samples to observe the growth of this new business format in Hebei Province and document innovative practices under this new model.
Recently, at the Qingyan Shuzhi AI OPC (One-Person Company) community within the Hebei Tsinghua Development Research Institute in Shijiazhuang High-tech Zone, staff from resident companies were engaged in technical exchanges. Inside the institute, the Qingyan Shuzhi AI OPC community presents a bustling scene of activity. In the open space spanning over 1,200 square meters, the sound of keyboard clicks fills the air, with more than half of the 30-plus workstations already booked. Here, one workstation represents one company.
Liu Jinke, a post-2000s OPC founder, sits at his workstation, closely monitoring cloud server operational data on his screen. In 2024, he founded Hebei Julang Technology Co., Ltd., focusing on cloud computing and AI applications. "By deeply integrating AI agents with elastic cloud servers, we have built an intelligent delivery system that provides enterprises with one-stop technical support from model deployment to inference operation," he explained.
Starting a business alone is no easy feat. "Initially, my mind was filled only with technology. The code could run, and the servers could be set up, but I lacked professional marketing and operational experience," Liu recalled. A startup struggling to balance technical R&D, market expansion, and financial management, he realized that what he lacked was not technology but a full-lifecycle steward that could provide comprehensive support.
In June this year, Liu decided to give it a try and moved into the Qingyan Shuzhi AI OPC community. "Specialists helped me refine my marketing plans and connected me with bookkeeping services. With fewer trivial matters to handle, I can devote all my energy to technical R&D," he said. The office space, provided free of charge, is bright and spacious. During leisure time, he can relax in the coffee bar or tea room. When he needs to communicate with clients or showcase products, the public meeting rooms and roadshow hall are available at any time, fully equipped with necessary facilities. The community also offers supporting apartments and a cafeteria, enabling true 'move-in-ready' convenience.
"The Qingyan Shuzhi AI OPC community leverages its research heritage and industrial resources to provide full-lifecycle services covering cultivation, implementation, and support for OPCs," explained Ge Zhi, the community's operations manager. The community has established an independent and controllable computing power foundation, creating a 'computing power supermarket' and an AI agent development platform. This enables on-demand scheduling of computing resources, reducing technology costs for innovation entities. Simultaneously, it promotes deep integration of technology with county-level industrial scenarios across the province, facilitating the transformation of AI achievements into the real economy and nurturing new entrepreneurial entities like OPCs through innovative configuration of production factors.
What Liu values most is the projects, industrial resources, and collaboration channels the community provides. Not long ago, the community connected him with a software development project where both parties had clear needs and smooth communication. "We didn't have to worry about anything else; we just focused on doing the technical part well and completed the delivery quickly," Liu said with a smile.
"Most entrepreneurship platforms only solve basic issues like 'where to work' and 'how to register a company'," Ge Zhi noted. "We proactively collect real AI application scenarios, break them down into detailed tasks, and precisely match them to OPCs within the community. At the same time, we handle coordination, scheduling, and unified communication. Enterprises can focus on their business without worrying about finding orders."
Going a step further, "We not only help companies secure orders but also help them execute the work well and build a strong reputation. For example, we assist enterprises in accumulating their own data asset packages, extracting replicable industry solutions, and creating benchmark cases for external display," Ge Zhi added. Within the community, a symbiotic ecosystem is gradually forming, where enterprises serve as each other's clients and empower one another. When Liu launched a new AI product, another downstream enterprise within the community took an interest. The two quickly reached an agreement, and the order was fulfilled right at their doorstep.
Liu's company soon accelerated onto the fast track. Within just over two months of moving in, his average monthly revenue increased by more than 30% compared to before. Transitioning from beneficiary to co-builder, he now serves as the lead for the community's technology foundation, providing technical support and R&D services to resident enterprises, enabling more tech teams to operate leanly and focus on innovation.
Today, the community is home to 21 OPCs, with business spanning cutting-edge fields such as AIGC technology R&D, digital content creation, and AI industry solutions. A preliminary AI industry micro-ecosystem where technology, content, and market synergize is taking shape. "As an industrial innovation vehicle that empowers the real economy, our goal is not just to gather people but to gather intelligence," Ge Zhi said. The community not only attracts tech talent skilled in using AI tools but also broadly links county-level characteristic industrial clusters and small and medium-sized real economy enterprises across the province. This connects front-end AI tech teams with back-end county-level real industries, delivering services like AI design, digital marketing, and intelligent efficiency enhancement to the grassroots, precisely empowering Hebei's leading industries and county-level distinctive industries. This ensures AI genuinely becomes a new engine for the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries.
Comments