The 2026 Artificial Intelligence (AI) industry conference will be held in Jinan, capital of Shandong province, from Oct 14 to 16, marking the first time the event has been held outside Beijing since its launch two years ago.

The conference will bring together leading experts and more than 200 representatives from major AI companies to explore the industry's development. It will feature a main forum, along with a series of specialized sessions and related activities focusing on emerging technologies, including industry-specific large language models and embodied intelligence.

A 100,000-square-meter exhibition area will showcase the latest applications of AI across industries in China, with dedicated sections covering AI servers and large models, cloud computing and big data, embodied intelligence and robotics, the industrial internet, and startups. More than 3,000 companies are expected to participate, including NVIDIA, Huawei, ZTE, Haier, Baidu, and Unitree Robotics.

The move to Jinan reflects Shandong's strong industrial base and expanding market for AI applications. The province has a complete industrial system spanning all 41 industrial categories in the country.

In 2025, Shandong's core AI industry generated 128.93 billion yuan ($19.12 billion) in revenue, up 39.2 percent year-on-year and accounting for about one-tenth of the national total. The province was home to 1,124 key companies engaged in areas such as large models, AI agents, big data, and computing power. In the first half of 2026, revenue from the core AI industry surpassed 85 billion yuan, up 33.2 percent year-on-year.