- Annual AI gathering returns with 50,000-square-meter exhibition and 1,000-plus companies as competition shifts toward infrastructure and applications
- Conference highlights China’s ambition to move AI from conversational tools to autonomous agents and real-world systems
Alibaba’s annual Apsara Conference (云栖大会) will return to Hangzhou from September 22 to 24, with this year’s event focusing on how AI can move beyond technological breakthroughs and deliver practical value across industries.
Under the theme “Intelligence Goes Beyond,” the three-day conference will showcase the full AI technology stack, from foundational models and computing infrastructure to industrial applications and social impact.
The event will feature three major forums, more than 140 sub-forums and an exhibition area spanning over 50,000 square meters, with participation from more than 1,000 companies.
The main Apsara Forum will outline Alibaba’s AI strategy, perspectives and latest technological developments in the era of AI.
The Technology Forum will focus on models, AI agents and “Agentic Cloud,” presenting a five-layer full-stack technology framework while unveiling Alibaba Cloud’s latest core technologies and annual product releases.
A third forum, titled “For the Value Beyond Calculation,” will explore AI’s broader social impact and the integration of technology with human values.
More than 2,000 global leaders and industry experts are expected to participate in discussions throughout the event.
Three themes
The 140-plus sub-forums will cover three broad themes: exploring the boundaries of intelligence, rebuilding the computing foundation and creating new industrial opportunities.
Topics will include frontier AI models, inference services, agentic coding, AI agent applications, chips and computing power, cloud infrastructure, digital transformation across industries, globalization, AI governance and the relationship between technology and society.
The main exhibition at Hangzhou International Expo Center will feature four themed halls: the Intelligent Engine Hall, Computing Foundation Hall, Super Creation Hall and Industry Co-Creation Hall.
The exhibition will demonstrate AI capabilities across the entire technology chain — from computing resources and models to practical deployment in industries including embodied intelligence, automobiles, manufacturing and finance.
The conference will also connect two venues: Hangzhou International Expo Center and the Yunqi Town International Convention and Exhibition Center, with the latter focusing on emerging areas such as space-based computing and physical AI.
‘Agent-native’ participation
Jointly organized by the Hangzhou municipal government and Alibaba Group, the Apsara Conference traces its origins to a local internet summit in 2009 before being officially renamed and permanently established at Hangzhou’s Yunqi Town in 2015.
This year’s conference will introduce a new “agent-native” participation model.
Attendees will be able to bring their own AI agents to the event, with each agent receiving a dedicated digital identity and access to real-time conference schedules, exhibition information and personalized recommendations.
Additional activities such as Agent Arena will allow AI agents to participate directly in interactions, exploring a new format in which humans and AI systems jointly participate in technology events.
Infrastructure competition
The scale of this year’s Apsara Conference stands out at a time when many global technology events are becoming smaller and more focused.
With a 50,000-square-meter exhibition area, more than 1,000 participating companies and over 2,000 global experts and executives, the event signals a broader shift: the AI race is moving beyond showcasing models toward competing over computing infrastructure, ecosystems and real-world adoption.
By connecting agentic AI across chips, cloud infrastructure and industrial applications, the conference reflects a question being explored across the global technology industry: how can AI move from simply generating responses to actually completing tasks?
Why it matters globally
For international observers, Apsara offers a window into China’s evolving AI strategy — one that is increasingly shifting from a race to build larger models toward a competition over the infrastructure and application layers needed to commercialize them.
When exhibition halls are filled with computing power, AI agents and industrial use cases, and when space-based computing and robotics receive dedicated platforms, the message is clear: the next stage of AI competition will not be decided only by what happens on screens, but by who controls the connection between computing resources and the physical world.
The answers may be found on display at the Apsara Conference. Registration for the 2026 Apsara Conference is now open, with attendees able to sign up through the official website: https://yunqi.aliyun.com/2026/tickets-list
