China saw a massive uptick in generative artificial intelligence adoption in the first half of the year to 515 million users, with most of the users preferring domestic models, according to a state-run research organisation.

The number of users more than doubled in the first six months of the year from the end of December to reach an adoption rate of 36.5 per cent, a report released on Saturday by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) found.

Bolstered by advanced infrastructure and state encouragement, China has become a world leader in AI use and is now rolling out an AI plus strategy to fuel further social and economic development.

Well-educated young and middle-aged people were the main users: those under 40 years old accounted for 74.6 per cent of the users and those with a degree from a higher education institution accounted for 37.5 per cent of users.

Beijing has called for the widespread diffusion of AI technologies in society and the economy as part of its “AI Plus” initiative. Leading American models such as those from OpenAI and Google DeepMind are officially blocked on the mainland, while domestic models such as DeepSeek, Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen and ByteDance’s Doubao have all exploded in popularity among Chinese users.

Alibaba Cloud is the AI and cloud computing unit of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the Post.