The 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) will take place in Shanghai, China from July 17 to 20, Centered on the theme "AI partnership for a brighter future".
Over the past eight editions, WAIC has brought together more than 8,000 leading scientists, founders and industry leaders, while attracting over 3,000 top companies from China and abroad.
This year, the city-wide layout sharpens that ambition: Expo Centre (世博中心) will anchor the main forums, Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center (世博展览馆) will host the flagship exhibition, Zhangjiang Science Hall (张江科学会堂) will spotlight chips and core infrastructure, and West Bund International Convention and Exhibition Center (徐汇西岸国际会展中心) will focus on consumer-facing AI and entertainment-driven experiences.
This guide breaks the event down venue by venue, answering three practical questions for international visitors: what to see, which forums to prioritize, and which side events are worth the trip.
Expo: The Full Picture of the AI Industry
Expo is the centerpiece of WAIC 2026 — and easily the most information-dense stop on the map. On the exhibition side, visitors can expect 108 chips, 261 foundation models, 208 embodied-intelligence terminals, and more than 300 working machines on display. On the conference side, the program is just as ambitious: more than 140 forums, 1,500 heavyweight guests, over 1,000 young AI talents under 35, and nine top-award winners are expected to appear across the schedule.
Exhibitions: Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center (世博展览馆)
The exhibition is spread across four core halls, H1 to H4, which together function as a map of the AI value chain.
H1 Application & Ecology Pavilion（应用与生态馆） is where AI meets industry at scale. The hall spans the full stack of the ecosystem, from general-purpose and multimodal foundation models to vertical AI applications, industrial models and industrial platforms, AI agents, core infrastructure, fintech, AI for Science, data services, and end-user devices. In practical terms, this is the hall for anyone trying to understand how AI moves from compute and model layers into real-world deployment.
H2 Technology & Innovation Pavilion（技术与创新馆） is the hard-tech zone. It focuses on frontier intelligent technologies, compute infrastructure and high-value deployment scenarios, with a strong emphasis on autonomous driving, power and energy systems, general-purpose GPGPU chips, ARM/ASIC edge chips, networking, compute hardware, and urban governance. Several heavyweight product launches are expected here, making H2 one of the most likely places to catch infrastructure-level breakthroughs rather than polished demos.
H3 Embodied Intelligence Pavilion（具身智能馆） is the robotics hall. It brings together the core components of the embodied-AI supply chain, including dexterous hands, industrial robots, general-purpose humanoids, quadruped robots, and embodied models. For visitors interested in motion control, robot hardware, and machine behavior in live settings, this will likely be one of the busiest and most visually striking halls at the event.
H4 Multiple Fields Connection Pavilion（全域链接馆） is where startups, investors and developers converge. Built around the WAIC Future Tech（WAIC Future Tech） venture ecosystem, the hall features 158 startups and 22 OPC projects selected from 1,200 innovation projects, covering four main tracks: industry applications, embodied intelligence and terminals, infrastructure, and frontier technology. With pitching stages, developer zones and open sharing sessions, H4 is where early signals, fresh capital and market narratives are most likely to emerge.
Forums: Expo Centre (世博中心)
If the exhibition halls show where AI is now, Expo Centre is where the industry argues about where it is going next. The forum agenda broadly revolves around four pillars — foundations, journeys, boundaries and ecosystems — covering compute infrastructure, large-model development, power-compute coordination, AI for Science, agents and more.
Activities
Daytime: Robot encounters, no fixed schedule
During the day, Expo is designed for serendipity. There is no single fixed “robot timetable”; instead, roaming performances and spontaneous multi-machine demos may appear throughout the venue. Humanoid robots such as AgiBot Expedition A3 (智元远征A3) are expected to perform alongside young dancers, while creator teams from Douyin (抖音) and Bilibili (哔哩哔哩) will stage live demonstrations featuring biped robots, wheeled-legged robots and robot dogs. If you need a break, the north second floor of Expo Centre will also host music therapy pods and interactive experiences.
Evening: Scheduled themed events
For fixed-schedule programming, one highlight is WAIC UP! 2026 Youth Observers Salon, set for July 19 from 13:30 to 21:30 at the Expo exhibition area, with a focus on education, employment and entrepreneurship.
Zhangjiang: Chips, Compute and the Hard Infrastructure Race
The Zhangjiang venue is built for visitors who care less about polished applications and more about the industrial substrate of AI. This year, the site will host more than 100 companies, over 200 exhibits, 67 China debuts, and a dense lineup of heavyweight forums. More importantly, it is one of the few places where visitors can compare major domestic compute players side by side: more than ten general-purpose compute-chip companies will exhibit together, with mainstream Chinese GPU vendors nearly all on site and four emerging architectures competing in the same arena.
Exhibitions
On the first floor, Haike Hall（海科厅） gathers more than 60 companies across five major tracks: general-purpose compute, cloud-side photonic and heterogeneous compute, edge AI chips, high-speed interconnect devices, and next-generation silicon infrastructure.
On the second floor, Zhangjiang Hall（张江厅）, the focus shifts from components to delivery. More than 40 companies will present end-to-end solutions spanning base-layer architecture, full-stack compute, cloud-side complete systems, industrial edge compute and system integration. In other words, if the first floor is about the parts, the second floor is about how those parts scale into deployable platforms.
Forums
At Zhangjiang Science Hall (张江科学会堂), the forum program is structured less around buzzwords and more around real bottlenecks. The logic is sequential: chip architecture breakthroughs → interconnect systems → industrial deployment. Topics range from architecture design and optical interconnect acceleration to how domestic compute power can translate into usable applications, with extensions into disaster resilience and youth innovation. The tone here is expected to be technical, practical and close to the metal.
WAIC CONNECT
Zhangjiang is also where WAIC’s business-matching ambitions become concrete. The WAIC CONNECT Zhangjiang session will release large-scale live procurement demand, including a venue-specific buying pool worth tens of billions of yuan, highlighted by single compute orders worth up to RMB 1 billion and multiple industry orders worth hundreds of millions.
The program includes 20 vertical matchmaking sessions, 60+ real deployment scenarios, and 150+ buyer delegations, covering compute infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, smart energy and cross-border cooperation. For solution providers, this may be one of the few parts of WAIC where conversations move directly from technical promise to budget-backed demand.
Activities: Interactive and Night Activities
Visitors can step into a human-machine combat arena, operate humanoid mechas in competition, test AI tennis and smart table-tennis systems that provide training analytics, or challenge the marathon-winning robot Lightning Robot in a human-versus-machine sprint. Bionic robot dogs and XR-based mixed-reality combat experiences will also be available on site.
After dark, the venue shifts from demos to community-building. Harvard Business Review × SynTao Weekly will host an AI Creators Night around storytelling, emotion and consensus in the AI era, with participants including CITIC Press Group (中信出版), iQIYI (爱奇艺) and science-fiction writer Chen Qiufan (陈楸帆). Another highlight, APEC Youth AI Creators Night, co-hosted by AttraX and WAIC UP!, will bring together young founders and developers from China and APEC economies for pitching and networking.
West Bund: Where AI Starts to Feel Consumer-Ready
For the past two years, much of the AI conversation has centered on model parameters, benchmark rankings and infrastructure scale. West Bund offers a different answer: put the products directly in front of people.
At West Bund International Convention and Exhibition Center (徐汇西岸国际会展中心), nearly 10,000 square meters of exhibition space will host 100+ companies and 200+ products, including 57 China debuts and 64 consumer-grade AI products available for hands-on trial. Over the four-day event, the venue will also host more than 30 forums.
Exhibitions
Zone A | Future Entertainment & Digital Perception
This is where AI reshapes the world on screen. AIGC video, AI music, virtual humans, AI social interaction, emotional companionship and immersive experiences all converge here. If you want to see how AI writes songs, generates video, or turns digital characters into interactive companions, this is the first stop.
Zone B | Future Devices & AI Lifestyles
This section is about everyday interfaces: AI phones, education hardware, health devices and smart-living products. The message is simple: AI is no longer just in the cloud — it is moving into objects people carry, wear and use every day.
Zone C | Wearables & Embodied Intelligence
This is where AI moves from the desk to the body. AI glasses, wearables and service-oriented companion robots take center stage. If the future of AI feels most real when it is worn or physically present, this is the venue's most immersive zone.
Zone D | The Public Energy Field
Think of this as the venue's central activation space. Product launches, themed roadshows, competitions, talent networking and live performances all happen here in rotation. Robot bands, digital-human stage performances and audience-facing showcases are designed to turn the exhibition floor into something closer to a live show than a conventional trade fair.
Forums
At West Bund, the conference programming spans frontier science, industrial deployment, embodied intelligence and talent development. Topics range from AI for Science, advanced materials and quantum-related exploration to how AI is entering creative industries, how robots are moving into factories, and how younger generations are building careers around AI-native workflows.
Activities
For youth and families Highlights include WAIC YOUNG: Sound Creation Universe, billed as China’s first youth AI music variety showcase, which will bring top AIGC music competition entries to an offline stage at West Bund Dream Center, with musicians performing live alongside student participants from a school for the visually impaired. Another key event is the “Large Models + Embodied Intelligence” Autonomous Navigation Competition, where contestants instruct or program quadruped robots to complete obstacle courses involving stairs, gaps and slopes. The “Post-2010 AI Natives” program will also feature youth-created AI IP, short films and creative merchandise.
For developers and creatorsThe Solo App Geek Camp will offer free AI courses co-organized by Douyin (抖音), Bilibili (哔哩哔哩), Alibaba (阿里巴巴) and Jimeng (即梦), covering AIGC content creation, intelligent office tools, low-code development and robot DIY. Another major mixer, AI Creators Night, co-hosted by Datawhale (Datawhale), AGI Villa and Synced (硅星人), will bring together developers, researchers and creators to exchange live projects and ideas. Meanwhile, WAIC AI Nightfall Global Intelligence Night, co-organized by WAIC UP! and Kata Lab (咔嗒Lab), will feature speakers including engineers from Hugging Face, product experts from Midjourney, and the founder of TDengine, with a strong emphasis on integrated workflows spanning models, tooling and multimodal skills.
For product reviewers and early adoptersThe event Good or Bad Night, co-hosted by WAIC UP! and Guānchá (观猹), will stage live product evaluations of desktop AI agents from names including YouNavi, ColaOS, Miyang Technology (米羊科技), StepFun (阶跃AI) and NewMax AI, with the audience voting in real time on whether the products are actually useful.
EqualOcean × WAIC 2026
EqualOcean has officially launched its reporting plan for WAIC 2026.
As a global think tank focused on helping Chinese companies expand overseas while connecting international institutions with China’s industrial opportunities, we will report directly from all major WAIC venues. Our coverage will include breaking updates from the show floor, executive interviews, analysis of global expansion opportunities, and deeper reads on international AI industry trends.
For Exhibitors: Open for Booth Visits and Executive Interviews
If your company is unveiling new technologies, overseas deployment strategies or global expansion plans at WAIC 2026, we welcome requests for on-site booth visits and executive interviews.
Leveraging EqualOcean’s cross-border industry network, policy connections and capital-market reach, we aim to help exhibitors gain targeted visibility among domestic investors, overseas stakeholders and global partners — while uncovering new opportunities in international collaboration, fundraising and market expansion.
EqualOcean’s bilingual research reports and long-form industry analysis are regularly indexed or cited by global platforms including Bloomberg Terminal, Yahoo! Finance, AP News, PR Newswire, Morningstar and Benzinga.
For Readers: Follow the Series
We will continue to track how AI companies expand globally, where the operational bottlenecks lie, and where the next wave of opportunity is forming. Expect a running stream of first-hand observations from the show floor, combined with deeper strategic analysis through a global lens.
Contact Us
Yiran Xing: xingyiran@iyiou.com
Tongchun Qiu: qiutongchun@iyiou.com
Hanchen Meng: menghanchen@iyiou.com
About EqualOcean
EqualOcean is a new-generation think tank and strategic connector focused on helping Chinese companies go global while enabling overseas companies and institutions to better understand and engage with China’s development opportunities.
With a mission to connect China and the world, EqualOcean’s core strengths lie in its industry-leading team, its ability to bridge public and private networks, its reach across both technology sectors and traditional industries, and its globally oriented perspective and resource base.