Chip industry's growth will reduce foreign reliance

Echoing President Xi Jinping's call to boost the healthy development of the country's new generation of artificial intelligence (AI), Chinese technology companies attending the ongoing World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, East China's Zhejiang province, are intensifying efforts to develop their own artificial intelligence (AI) chips, as the country aims to become self-reliant in key technologies and lessen its dependence on foreign microprocessors.

In September, Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd announced the establishment of a dedicated chip subsidiary aimed at creating customized AI chips and embedded processors to further support the tech giant's cloud and internet of things businesses, as well as drive the development of industry-specific applications.

The company plans to launch its first AI chip AliNPU, which could potentially support technologies used in autonomous driving, smart cities and smart logistics in the second half of next year, said Zhang Jianfeng, Alibaba chief technology officer, at the company's annual cloud computing conference in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.