From Coal Hub to Smart Computing Center: Decoding Shanxi Linfen's Industrial Leap

Deep News10-14

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Limited seats available, first come first served. Let us journey together toward sustainability! [Click to register] Linfen, October 14 (Ren Lina) — On October 14, the 2026 Linfen "AI+" Industrial Ecosystem and Investment Promotion Exchange Conference was held. This gathering, themed "Smart Hub Linfen · Digital Innovation Future," is quietly rewriting the industrial foundation of this traditional resource-based city.

As a traditional coal and coke stronghold in China, Linfen City in Shanxi Province has long built its economic base on energy industries such as coal and coking. Now, with computing power scale landing, AI application scenario lists being released, and industrial ecosystem alliances being formed, a series of new moves are taking the stage one after another. Linfen is attempting to use the artificial intelligence industry as its core lever to complete a thorough "skeleton restructuring" of its urban industrial system, forging a brand-new path for the transformation and upgrading of a resource-based city.

The holding of this conference marks that Linfen's digital economy layout has officially moved from the early planning stage into the implementation phase of ecosystem co-construction, making the industrial leap path of this veteran energy city increasingly clear.

One "Store" and One "Network" Charting the AI Course

The most eye-catching aspect of this conference was not the signing figures, but a "store" and a "network."

The world's first robot 6S store, with its Shanxi flagship location, was officially launched in Linfen. This is not a sales outlet in the traditional sense, but a full-scenario service综合体 integrating sales, parts, after-sales, information feedback, leasing, and scenario customization. It targets nine major scenarios including special operations, smart healthcare, and elderly care companionship, and has already brought in over 30 leading robot brands and more than 240 industry chain institutions. A "6S store" is, in essence, a miniature testing ground for the entire embodied intelligence industry ecosystem.

At the same time, the Linfen Artificial Intelligence Industry Ecosystem Alliance was established. China Unicom Shanxi Branch serves as the alliance leader, joining hands with Shanxi Mobile and Shanxi Telecom, using the three major operators' network and computing power foundations as their base to connect the entire chain of computing power, data, algorithms, and scenarios. The first batch of 20 member units forms a closed loop from underlying computing power to top-level applications. This marks Linfen's AI industry moving from "single-point breakthroughs" to "cluster operations."

Integrating AI into Every Industry

Shanxi Vice Governor Xu Chaofeng cited a set of data in his speech: the province has over 400 intelligent coal mines, has cultivated more than 100 intelligent factories, and its key process numerical control rate is above the national average. Linfen, relying on its deep industrial foundations in coal, metallurgy, and coking, is making forward-looking arrangements in new tracks such as AI data annotation, short dramas, and embodied intelligence, forming a synergistic advantage of "traditional momentum plus emerging kinetic energy."

Linfen Party Secretary Li Xinchun's statement was more specific: adhere to the deep integration of artificial intelligence and the real economy, accelerate the formation of a hundred-billion-level green coking industry cluster, a hundred-billion-level special steel R&D and production base, and a fifty-billion-level characteristic equipment manufacturing industry cluster, and promote the transformation of "Linfen Manufacturing" into "Linfen Smart Manufacturing" and "Linfen Creation." At the same time, deeply tap the potential in energy, government affairs, cultural tourism and other fields, open up new tracks such as embodied intelligence and AIGC, let new technologies find "test fields," let good ideas become "money trees," let artificial intelligence integrate into every industry and activate all types of factors, accumulating strong momentum for the city's high-quality development.

From "Black" to "Smart": AI as the "Scalpel" of Transformation

Linfen's transformation is not a leap from nothing. Shanxi has a solid foundation for developing artificial intelligence: the computing power base continues to be consolidated, and the total scale of computing power and computation ranks firmly in the nation's first tier; it possesses the only national artificial intelligence application center base in the national coal sector. Linfen's uniqueness lies in treating AI as a "scalpel" for transforming traditional industries, rather than starting a new venture from scratch.

During the conference, five industry exchange sessions were held simultaneously, covering AI-empowered government affairs and industrial upgrading, smart education, smart healthcare, the coal industry, and urban renewal, focusing on the implementation of application scenarios and sharing success stories. This pragmatic arrangement of "main forum plus sub-scenarios" reflects Linfen's clarity: AI's value is not in papers, but down in the mines, in the factories, and in the hospitals.

From "coal and coke stronghold" to "smart computing highland," Linfen's turn has only just begun. On the AI track, Linfen does not want to be just a "spectator," but a "player"—using computing power as the foundation, scenarios as the traction, and ecosystems as the aggregation, forging a new path for resource-based city transformation between traditional industries and emerging momentum.

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