In the past three years, the digital China Development Index has maintained a steady growth of more than 10%; in 2024, China's artificial intelligence patents accounted for 61.5% of the world; as of the first quarter of this year, the scale of intelligent computing at the "East Digital and West Calculation" hub nodes accounted for more than 80%... The latest research data released by relevant ministries and commissions and authoritative research institutions demonstrated that my country's digital economy development continues to improve quality and efficiency, digital technology innovation has reached a new level, and digital infrastructure has achieved a new leap.

  Improve quality in stability: Digital China Development Index has grown by more than 10% for three consecutive years

  Recently, the "Digital China Development Index System" and the Digital China Development Index were released to the public. The indicator system covers 10 first-level indicators and 47 second-level indicators, including digital economy, digital government affairs, digital culture, etc., and comprehensively reflects the effectiveness of digital empowering economic and social development and the basic ability of digital development.

  Research shows that with 2020 as the base period, the digital China Development Index in 2024 was 150.51, an increase of 10.65% year-on-year. By field, in 2024, the growth rate of the development index of five first-level indicators, including digital infrastructure, digital technology, digital security, data elements, and digital society, maintained double-digit growth, reflecting that my country's new infrastructure construction is more perfect, scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation are deeply integrated, and data development and utilization are accelerated.

  The "Digital China Development Report (2024)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") recently released by the National Data Administration also confirms the trend of steady improvement in the construction of digital China. The report shows that in the past three years, China's digital development index has maintained a steady growth of more than 10%. The development of the digital economy will improve quality and efficiency, and the added value of core industries in the digital economy will account for about 10% of the GDP in 2024.

  It is worth mentioning that innovation vitality in the digital field is emerging, among which unicorn companies in the digital economy are typical representatives of the innovative development of the digital economy. The "Research Report on the Development of Digital Economy Unicorns" recently released by the National Institute of Data Development shows that in 2024, unicorns in China each account for about one-quarter of the proportion of unicorns in my country's digital technology application, digital efficiency improvement, digital factor driving, digital product manufacturing and service industry.

  "This reflects the balanced and comprehensive development pattern of my country's digital economy. Digital transformation covers all links of the real economy and forms a diversified integrated innovation ecosystem." said Hu Jianbo, director of the National Institute of Data Development.

  Technology Innovative: China's artificial intelligence patents account for 61.5% of the world

  Many data show that current digital technology innovation has reached a new level, stimulating the endogenous driving force for the development of the digital economy. Taking artificial intelligence technology as an example, the report shows that among the 45,000 newly published generative artificial intelligence patents in 2024, my country accounts for 61.5%.

  In particular, large-scale model technology is constantly iterating and upgrading, and performance and application level are steadily improving. At present, more and more companies are accelerating the development of new technologies and new products, and promoting the continuous emergence of new digital consumption formats and new hot spots.

  China FAW recently launched OpenMind, an enterprise agent developed based on Alibaba Tongyi’s big model. "The automobile industry is undergoing an unprecedented digital transformation. Through multiple rounds of dialogue, the intelligent body can accurately identify user business processing intentions and gradually obtain relevant information. It has functions such as daily business processing, policy consultation, and knowledge retrieval to effectively improve the operational efficiency of enterprises." A relevant person in charge of China FAW said.

  "Artificial intelligence technology has become a breakthrough, and smart terminals usher in new growth space." Tian Mi, chief technology officer of Xueersi, said that by carrying DeepSeek and Jiuzhang dual-core big models, enterprises are accelerating the research and development and launching of smart terminals such as learning machines, deeply combining big models with educational professional knowledge, and strengthening intelligent interaction and accurate analysis capabilities for users.

  The "National Data Resource Survey Report (2024)" shows that the number of enterprises developing or applying artificial intelligence in 2024 increased by 36% year-on-year, while data technology enterprises and data application enterprises using large models increased by 57.21% and 37.14% year-on-year respectively.

  The continuous innovation of technology applications has also made global investors continue to be optimistic about China's artificial intelligence and data industry. Jiang Xiaojuan, a professor at the University of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, recently said at the 8th Digital China Construction Summit that the proportion of Chinese technology companies listed on the US stock market in 2024 was 24%, the highest in the past decade. More importantly, long-term capital is rapidly entering and is optimistic about China's artificial intelligence and data industry in the long term.

  Digital infrastructure jumps: Intelligent computing accounts for 32% of the total computing power scale

  While digital technology is constantly innovating, digital infrastructure continues to be consolidated and accelerates its leap.

  Not long ago, the world's first commercial intelligent computing Ascend super node was released in the computing power cluster of China Telecom Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Shaoguan) and has now been commercially launched, marking the injection of a new generation of intelligent computing power into the national computing power hub node of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. "We have included the intelligent computing Ascend super nodes in the national computing power system to provide services to the whole country. At the same time, we have combined the hierarchical layout of the Greater Bay Area's computing, intelligent computing and supercomputing to provide users with integrated training and promotion, cloud intelligence, and super intelligence capabilities, serving thousands of industries." A relevant person in charge of China Telecom introduced.

  The accelerated popularization of artificial intelligence puts forward higher requirements on the intelligence level of digital information infrastructure. Data shows that as of the first quarter of this year, the total computing power scale of the eight major hub nodes in my country's "East and West Calculation" has reached 215.5 billion floating-point operations per second, of which the intelligent computing power scale accounts for 80.8% of the total computing power scale of the hub node. Overall, the "National Data Resource Survey Report (2024)" shows that the proportion of intelligent computing power in the total computing power scale increased to 32% in 2024.

  At the same time, my country's digital infrastructure base has continued to be consolidated: the world's largest mobile communications and fiber broadband network is built; as of the end of March, the total number of 5G base stations reached 4.395 million, and the number of 10G PON ports with gigabit network service capabilities reached 29.25 million...

  In the next step, my country will systematically promote the layout of digital infrastructure. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has made it clear that it will expand the coverage of gigabit networks and promote the evolution and upgrading of 5G networks in an orderly manner. Improve the independent supply capacity of advanced computing power and promote the ubiquitous interconnection of edge-end computing power facilities in the cloud network. Do a good job in research on key technologies of the next generation of Internet and provide digital support for economic and social development. (Reporter Guo Qian)

[Editor in charge: Wang Mengmeng]