Yangpu launches 'Urban AI Factory' in partnership with ByteDance

Douyin Group's office building in Yangpu district, Shanghai. [Photo/WeChat ID: shanghai-yangpu]

Shanghai's Yangpu district and ByteDance's Volc Engine signed a cooperation agreement on June 20 to build China's first government-led "Urban AI Factory".

This initiative aims to transform artificial intelligence into a fundamental utility by leveraging computing power, models, and data.

The launch also marked the opening of the Yangpu AI Industrial Park and High-End Data Annotation Base, which welcomed six pioneering companies as its first tenants.

Since ByteDance's subsidiary Douyin Group's establishment in Yangpu in 2020, the district has hosted a slew of high-level events to attract collaborations in AI and green industries.

Largely thanks to tech giants like Douyin, Yangpu's digital economy, particularly software and IT services, has seen robust growth. It saw a significant shift from industrial to digital economic prominence, with over 8,300 digital economy enterprises now based in the area.

Volc Engine, utilizing ByteDance's data resources and algorithmic capabilities, is accelerating the conversion of technology into productivity, boosting urban development and industrial upgrading.

According to Wang Zheng, general manager at Volc Engine, the "Urban AI Factory" uses computing power and data as raw materials, AI tools as production tools, and intelligent agents as producers, replacing traditional industrial methods.