The Pudong New Area Artificial Intelligence Industry Integration and Innovation Promotion Conference was held on July 18 during the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference. The event focused on six key areas: industrial layout, science and technology finance, core technologies, data elements, public service applications, and service platforms, announcing a series of new policies, achievements, and institutions.
Among the highlights, the Shanghai Humanoid Robot Pilot Service Platform was officially launched. Located in the Zhangjiang Robot Valley, the platform establishes an integrated pilot service loop encompassing R&D and prototyping, precision assembly, comprehensive testing, and warehousing and delivery. With an annual capacity to produce 2,000 complete units and 2,000 sets of core precision components, it will provide crucial support for Pudong's embodied AI industry from R&D to mass production. This initiative aims to effectively reduce the costs of establishing R&D production lines, standardize manufacturing processes, accumulate practical test data, and support the cluster development of related industries in the Yangtze River Delta region.
Additionally, the construction plan for the AI + Biopharmaceutical Industry Cluster Zone was officially announced. Moving forward, Pudong New Area aims to build an innovation hub for the AI + biopharmaceutical sector. It will concentrate on three major fields: foundational innovation, novel drug development, and intelligent medical devices. Efforts will focus on making breakthroughs in ten key directions, including intelligently analyzing new mechanisms in life sciences, innovating across the entire drug development process, and establishing new paradigms for human-machine collaboration in smart medical devices. The goal is to form a fully empowered ecosystem and an integrated industrial system, accelerating the establishment of an internationally influential AI + biopharmaceutical industry cluster.
The Shanghai Pudong New Area Silver Tech Innovation Experimental Center and the Shanghai Pudong New Area "Senior Care + Artificial Intelligence" Real-World Application Laboratory were also inaugurated simultaneously. These two specialized platforms address the governance needs of aging populations in megacities, deploying real-world applications such as intelligent monitoring, age-friendly robots, and digital chronic disease management. They seek to unlock the significant potential of technology for good within senior care scenarios.
Annual results were released for the Pudong AI Seed Fund, which has a total target size of 2 billion yuan with an initial phase of 500 million yuan. The seed fund continues to focus on early-stage science and technology innovation projects, empowering startup teams through its flexible venture capital mechanism. In its first year, the fund has invested in 61 projects. These include 26 vertical model application projects, 14 embodied AI projects, 10 foundational platform projects, 6 intelligent terminal projects, and 5 brain-computer interface projects, with a total investment amount of 223 million yuan, continuously stimulating vitality in foundational innovation.
Furthermore, the conference showcased Pudong's landmark AI achievements and emerging forces for 2026, alongside the release of the "White Paper on Empowering Pudong's Future Industries with Scientific Data." The white paper focuses on how scientific data can empower the development of Pudong's future industries. Building upon Pudong's inherent advantages in scientific innovation, industry, infrastructure, and institutional frameworks, and based on a systematic review of phased progress, it provides pathways and strategic references for Pudong to further advance the role of data in powering its future industrial development.
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