Hangzhou has moved from rhetoric to implementation in its bid to become China’s leading AI city by doubling down on a municipally backed Market Scene Innovation Center that supplies real-world settings for new technologies. Established in July 2025 and funded by the city’s investment and data groups, the centre is operating as both a product testbed and an industry accelerator, explicitly designed to shepherd early-stage (0→1) ideas into scalable deployments.
The centre offers two complementary platforms: a Scene Innovation Platform that compiles opportunities and capabilities across municipal functions, and a Hangchuang E‑Station that bundles financing, loans, guarantees and other business services for tech firms. It also provides compute, data access, consulting and matchmaking; since launch it has hosted 22 offline “scene salon” events and brokered 15 scene partnerships, engaging more than 500 companies in hands‑on piloting and demonstration work.
City officials and the centre’s leadership lay out a clear playbook: scene + data, scene + service, and scene + investment. Using data aggregated from over 30 municipal departments the centre has built an AI industry map and undertaken targeted research in subfields such as embodied intelligence robots and integrated circuits, seeking to give a fine‑grained picture of local firms and demand signals for investors and developers.
Practical target areas include AI augmented policing, AI for urban construction and planning, and AI‑enabled cultural and arts applications. Those choices reflect a dual aim: deliver public‑sector efficiencies and create commercial showcase projects that could win places on a national “scene catalogue,” unlocking further policy support and central funding. The city has already issued an “AI+” scene demonstration plan and follow‑on opinions aimed at accelerating large‑scale application.
Hangzhou frames its effort in competitive national context. Hefei is noted for an earlier start and a more mature policy system for scenes, while Shenzhen boasts industrial depth and a full embodied‑robotics supply chain. The Hangzhou centre’s differentiator is its emphasis on municipal data integration and a blended financing model intended to help fragile 0→1 ventures both to validate technology and to scale from 1→100.
The initiative carries commercial opportunity and governance tension in equal measure. For startups and chip, cloud and robotics vendors, guaranteed local demand and curated municipal scenarios reduce market friction and speed product development. At the same time, the centre’s access to cross‑departmental municipal data and its role in public‑sector deployments raise questions about data governance, privacy safeguards and the terms under which private firms become anchored to local government platforms.
Hangzhou’s plan matters beyond one city. If successful, it will accelerate real‑world AI adoption in public services, help create industrial anchors in embodied intelligence and chip design, and set a template that other Chinese cities will copy. International firms watching China’s urban AI market will see both new partnership opportunities and tighter local control over data flows and procurement rules; whether projects graduate to national catalogues will be a key signal of broader policy endorsement and funding.