CNBC's The China Connection newsletter: China's AI race enters a new phase

Skip Navigation Markets Business Investing Tech Politics Video Watchlist Investing Club PRO Livestream Menu Key Points As Chinese companies look to monetize AI, they are searching for or building industry-specific models. Alibaba.com President Kuo Zhang said the company wants to partner with U.S. firms with AI models for law, finance or human resources. This year's state-organized Zhongguancun Forum in Beijing also underscored the need for specialized tech expertise. In this article BABA 1024-HK Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT A robot band from LinkerBot performs at a robot 6S store on Jan. 29, 2026 in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province of China. Vcg | Visual China Group | This report is from this week's CNBC's The China Connection newsletter, which brings you insights and analysis on what's driving the world's second-largest economy. You can subscribe here . Hi, this is Evelyn, writing to you from Beijing. Welcome to the latest edition of The China Connection — a succinct snapshot of what I'm seeing and hearing from local businesses. Today, I unpack what's next for Chinese companies using AI to make money. As more than one executive tells me, large language models like DeepSeek are no longer enough. What are they looking for instead? The big story Just as Chinese AI chatbots similar to ChatGPT seem to be catching up to their U.S. peers, a new race is shaping up: industry-specific artificial intelligence. …