- A new AI pavilion will track the full Token value chain, from computing power to applications and smart hardware
- Nearly 500 AI companies will showcase products as Hangzhou positions itself as a hub for the emerging AI trade economy
Token is emerging as a new yardstick for the digital economy, and Hangzhou is preparing to put that shift on display at a major international trade fair in September.
The fifth Global Digital Trade Expo, co-hosted by Zhejiang Province and China’s Ministry of Commerce, will run from September 23 to 27 at the Hangzhou Grand Convention and Exhibition Center.
For the first time, the national-level event will feature an AI Future Pavilion dedicated to the Token economy, covering the entire chain from Token production and inference to commercial applications.
Tokens are the basic units that large language models use to process information. China’s average daily Token usage exceeded 140 trillion by March 2026, more than 1,000 times the level two years earlier.
When ‘dragons’ meet ‘stallions’
The expo, themed “Meet the AI Future at the Digital Trade Expo,” will cover 170,000 square meters across a main exhibition hall, six industry-focused zones and a digital-trade innovation zone.
Apple, Amazon and Google will join global companies including Siemens, Medtronic, Roche and AstraZeneca.
Chinese participants include ByteDance, ZTE, State Grid, PetroChina and CRRC, alongside research institutions such as Zhejiang Lab, Alibaba’s DAMO Academy, Zhejiang University and Westlake University.
The event will also bring together Hangzhou’s “Six Little Dragons” and the “New Eight Stallions” for the first time.
The New Eight Stallions is a label introduced earlier this year for eight emerging Hangzhou deep-tech companies spanning areas such as aerospace, robotics and semiconductors.
Their joint appearance with the Six Little Dragons is expected to highlight the city’s growing pipeline of technology startups beyond its better-known AI companies like Alibaba and Hikvision.
Global new launches
The expo will also host a series of global product debuts, including what organizers describe as the world’s first full-stack neutral-atom quantum computing system, a hybrid tendon-and-direct-drive dexterous hand, and the first mass-produced passenger-carrying transformable mech, Unitree’s GD01.
Rokid’s second-generation smart glasses and Ubtech’s Walker C1 humanoid robot will also make appearances.
“Many of the growth companies we helped showcase in previous editions, including the ‘Six Little Dragons,’ made their first public appearances at the expo,” Li Yang, director of the Zhejiang International Economic Exhibition Center, said. “We expect more ‘little dragons’ to emerge here.”
Why it matters globally
Almost 500 AI companies will participate in this year’s expo, with application-focused businesses accounting for about 80% and covering more than 100 commercial scenarios.
The new AI Future Pavilion will organize exhibits around computing infrastructure, foundation models, industry applications and intelligent hardware, following the full Token lifecycle from production to use.
The international presence is also expanding. Nearly 10,000 overseas buyers have registered, up almost 50% from last year, while prospective international purchase orders have topped $940 million, up 47%. AI-related orders account for 53% of the total.
The shift is significant because AI is moving beyond being a technology product and toward becoming an economic input that can be priced, consumed and traded.
As Tokens become the common language linking computing resources with AI applications, the digital trade expo is effectively testing a new proposition: computing power can become a commodity, and Hangzhou wants to be one of the global centers where that commodity is traded.
