- The Zhejiang Lab chief said Hangzhou’s open-source AI ecosystem can no longer be described simply as “China’s Silicon Valley”
- He argued the city is shaping a new model of global AI innovation built on open collaboration and shared computing resources
Hangzhou is evolving beyond comparisons with Silicon Valley to become a global center of innovation, according to Wang Jian, director of Zhejiang Lab and founder of Alibaba Cloud.
Wang highlighted the city’s growing influence in open-source AI during a speech he delivered at the launch of the GOAI World Artificial Intelligence Open Source Competition on July 21.
He said the label “China’s Silicon Valley” no longer captures what is happening in Hangzhou.
Not just the Chinese answer to Silicon Valley
He recalled discussing the city with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang last year, when media outlets used the comparison, but argued that “Silicon Valley cannot explain the innovation taking place in Hangzhou today.”
Wang cited the United Nations’ first report on humanity civilization, produced by its AI advisory panel, which singled out Chinese developers for their contributions to open-source AI and specifically mentioned Alibaba’s Qwen models as well as DeepSeek V3 and R1.
The study’s formal title is Preliminary Report of the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI: Evidence-based assessment of opportunities, risks and impacts of artificial intelligence.
“That is authoritative recognition of Hangzhou’s — and China’s — contribution to open-source AI,” he said.
According to the report, the evolution of open-source AI demonstrates a shift from closed corporate systems toward globally distributed, collaborative innovation.
Wang also pointed to Hangzhou’s growing international influence in AI applications.
Growing clout in open-source AI
He noted that in a recent Shanghai-released ranking of China’s most influential AI applications, the top two entries both came from Hangzhou: Alibaba Cloud for its open-source technologies supporting global events including the Winter Olympics, and Zhejiang Lab for applying open-source AI to scientific research.
“Even when a new open-source breakthrough emerges today, it can’t avoid Hangzhou,” Wang said, citing the recently released Kimi K3 model.
Many overseas media outlets, he noted, described it as “another DeepSeek moment”—bringing attention back to Hangzhou’s AI ecosystem.
Wang also proposed a broader definition of open source, arguing that AI models ultimately depend on computing power and electricity.
Rather than focusing only on open code, he said, the future lies in “Open Resources”—making computing infrastructure and energy more broadly accessible.
“When China open-sources AI models, it is also opening access to computing power and energy resources in a more efficient way,” he said. “Open source gives us the opportunity to make the benefits of AI more equitable and accessible worldwide.”
The GOAI competition, organized by the Hangzhou Open Source AI Foundation, opened global registration the same day.
The event offers a total prize pool of 5 million yuan ($740,000), including a 1 million yuan grand prize, across four categories: foundation models, AI applications, frontier research and embodied intelligence. The finals will be held in Hangzhou on September 22-23.
Why it matters for global readers
Wang’s remarks reflect Hangzhou’s ambition to position itself not simply as China’s leading AI hub, but as a global center for open-source innovation.
The inclusion of Qwen and DeepSeek in a United Nations report suggests that the city’s AI ecosystem is gaining recognition beyond technical circles and entering discussions on global AI governance.
As open-source models increasingly shape worldwide AI development, Hangzhou’s collaborative approach could become an influential alternative to more closed innovation ecosystems.
