BEIJING, Oct. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — This is a report from China SCIO

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a new driver of China’s economic growth, transforming manufacturing and supporting modern services while boosting consumption, investment and exports, officials said at a press conference Monday.

Wang Guanhua, spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said China has stepped up its “AI Plus” initiative, accelerating the application of AI in industry.

AI is driving the shift toward smarter manufacturing. Its rapidly expanding applications are generating demand for chips, servers and smart devices, in turn boosting growth in digital product manufacturing, Wang said.

In the first three quarters, digital product manufacturing contributed to more than one-third of the growth in value-added output of industrial enterprises above designated size. Integrated circuit output rose 23.3% year on year during the same period.

With digital workshops and smart production lines coming into operation, AI is rapidly shifting “from an optional technology to a standard part of production,” she said.

At the same briefing, Mao Shengyong, deputy commissioner of the NBS, said the AI adoption rate in key application scenarios among large manufacturing enterprises had exceeded one-third.

Modern services are also benefiting from demand for AI model training, software development, computing power and algorithms. Value-added output in information transmission, software and information technology services rose 10.4% year on year in the first three quarters, with AI providing an important boost, Wang said.

In the first eight months, revenue at enterprises above designated size in the digital technology application sector grew 7.5% year on year, including a 12.8% increase for information technology service providers.

AI is moving out of the lab and into everyday life, turning cutting-edge technology into accessible consumer experiences, Wang said. AI glasses, smartwatches and fitness bands are becoming increasingly popular. In the first three quarters, retail sales of smart wearable devices rose more than 70% year on year.

AI is also reshaping brick-and-mortar retail and spurring the growth of smart retail formats. In the first three quarters, sales at unmanned stores grew more than 25% year on year.

Meanwhile, investment and exports in emerging sectors are expanding due to AI. In the first three quarters, investment in electronic circuit manufacturing, integrated circuit manufacturing and information services rose 58.7%, 14.2% and 20.2% year on year, respectively.

Supported by China’s equipment upgrade and consumer goods trade-in policies, companies are accelerating their adoption of smart technologies, helping drive a 9.7% increase in investment in equipment and tools during the period.

China’s comprehensive industrial supply chains also enable companies to quickly roll out AI hardware and software tailored to different applications and better meet overseas demand, Wang said.

In the first three quarters, exports of electronic components rose 70% year on year, while those of electrical wires and cables increased 25.3%. Products such as AI glasses and smart bionic robots are continuing to expand the range of AI applications worldwide.

Wang said China’s comprehensive industrial system, rapid response capabilities, abundant data resources, vast domestic market, and diverse application scenarios would continue to support the development of AI.

AI applications expand, fueling China’s economic growth
http://www.china.org.cn/2026-10/20/content_118740921.shtml

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SOURCE China SCIO

CRADA and related SpaceWERX Phase I research will explore space-based computing approaches for weather-modeling applications

PASADENA, Calif., Oct. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Sophia Space today announced a new Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with MIT Lincoln Laboratory to investigate how space-based computing approaches could support high-resolution weather-modeling research for remote operating environments.

The collaboration combines MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s weather-modeling research expertise with Sophia Space’s edge-compute concepts. The effort will explore whether distributed computing can support more timely environmental information for planning and decision-support applications.

Under the agreement, MIT Lincoln Laboratory will contribute weather-modeling research expertise, including the identification of modeling configurations, parameters, and data sources for evaluation. The team will develop representative test data and assess weather-model performace against defined research metrics using frameworks compatible with Sophia Space’s initial hardware configurations.

Sophia Space will provide the AI-inference compute environment for evaluating representative weather-model workloads, including terrestrial and potential space-based computing configurations. The organizations will explore high-level system and service architectures that may inform future research into space-based computing applications.

Sophia Space and MIT Lincoln Laboratory are also pursuing related work under Department of the Air Force STTR Topic SF25D-T1201 through the SpaceWERX Futures Series: Adaptive and Intelligent Space Challenge. The related effort examines technologies relevant to autonomous, resilient, and networked space-system operations.

“This partnership reflects our conviction that space-based computing infrastructure should be developed through rigorous collaboration between commercial innovators and world-class research institutions,” said Rob DeMillo, Co-founder and CEO of Sophia Space. “MIT Lincoln Laboratory brings unmatched weather sensing, forecasting and decision-support research expertise, and together we will explore the potential application of space-based computing to weather-modeling research.”

The collaboration aligns with Sophia Space’s research interests in edge-compute architectures, distributed processing, and sensor fusion integration for environments.

“Timely weather information is critical for operations in remote and contested environments,” said Dr. Timothy Bonin, Assistant Group Leader of the Air Traffic Control & Weather Systems Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. “This collaboration allows us to explore how space-based computing can help process satellite observations and other environmental data closer to the point of collection, while assessing potential impacts on communications demands and information-delivery timelines.”

About Sophia Space Inc.
Sophia Space is building the future of orbital computing and in-space data centers. Its modular TILE (Thermal-Integrated LEO Edge) technology enables passive computing alongside in-situ data processing, AI acceleration, and edge computing for satellites, defense systems, and commercial space stations—dramatically reducing latency and delivering actionable insights where and when they are needed. Learn more at www.sophia.space.

About MIT Lincoln Laboratory
MIT Lincoln Laboratory is a federally funded research and development (R&D) center chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. Since 1951, the Laboratory has developed technology that has transformed the activities of the defense, scientific, and industry communities. Its mission focuses on long-term technology development as well as rapid system prototyping and demonstration. Through several mechanisms, it facilitates partnerships with companies to advance R&D and increase U.S. technical competitiveness. Learn more at www.ll.mit.edu.

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SOURCE Sophia Space

Collaboration to connect AstraZeneca’s scientific and therapeutic expertise with Oracle’s real-world data, cloud, AI, and clinical capabilities to accelerate clinical research and bring evidence-driven insights into care workflows to help improve patient care

AUSTIN, Texas and ABU DHABI, UAE, Oct. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Oracle today announced an agreement with AstraZeneca to explore how AI and real-world data can help clinicians identify eligible patients for clinical trials, accelerate evidence generation, and bring relevant research insights into everyday care. The collaboration is expected to combine AstraZeneca’s scientific and therapeutic expertise with Oracle’s health data, cloud, AI, analytics, and clinical workflow capabilities.

Through a non-binding agreement, the companies plan to explore selected use cases that could improve clinical-trial efficiency and success by leveraging modern applications and AI to help care teams identify eligible patients earlier and easier, resulting in greater access to clinical trials for patients in need and helping to overcome one of the largest obstacles in clinical trials – patient recruitment. Initial disease areas to be explored could include oncology; cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases; respiratory and immunology; and rare diseases.

Pascal Soriot, Chief Executive Officer, AstraZeneca said: “This unique collaboration brings leaders in healthcare and AI together at a global scale to accelerate the journey from the discovery of medicine to patient care. Combining AstraZeneca’s world class science with Oracle’s deep data and technology expertise, we can help clinicians identify patients sooner, optimize clinical trials, and generate evidence continuously across the lifecycle of a medicine.”

“Some of the most important opportunities for AI are in healthcare, where better use of data can help turn scientific innovation into better outcomes for patients,” noted Mike Sicilia, chief executive officer, Oracle. “By bringing AstraZeneca’s scientific expertise together with Oracle’s data, cloud, AI, and healthcare capabilities, we have an opportunity to help accelerate research, connect more patients to clinical trials, and ultimately bring relevant insights into care faster.”

Connecting Research and Care

Anne-Claire Gerbaldi, Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer, AstraZeneca, added: “Too many patients are diagnosed late or face a long journey to get the care they need. To build the next decade of medicine, we aim to harness AI to connect learnings across science, clinical trials, and everyday care, generating insights that continuously strengthen research, accelerate innovation, and enhance patient outcomes. Bringing together the unique capabilities of Oracle and AstraZeneca, we believe we can support smarter clinical trials, strengthen safety monitoring, and help ensure patients are diagnosed sooner and receive the right care.”

Seema Verma, executive vice president and general manager, Oracle Health and Life Sciences, said: “Healthcare progress depends on shortening the distance between scientific insight and the decisions clinicians make every day. AstraZeneca brings deep scientific and therapeutic expertise, and Oracle will deliver the secure data, cloud, AI, and clinical workflow capabilities. This collaboration has the potential to help health systems identify eligible patients sooner, broaden access to clinical trials, and generate evidence that supports the next decision, all under the governance of the health systems delivering care.”

AstraZeneca and Oracle intend to explore a continuous learning model in which insights from clinical research and routine care help inform future study design, safety monitoring, and patient care. The companies plan to establish shared governance, reusable technical components, and agreed outcome measures to assess results and determine whether successful approaches could extend across disease areas and geographies.

About Oracle
Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit www.oracle.com.

Trademarks
Oracle, Java, MySQL and NetSuite are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. NetSuite was the first cloud company – ushering in the new era of cloud computing.

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SOURCE Oracle