According to Trivium China, China's generative AI ecosystem is growing at breakneck speed—over 3,700 public-facing generative algorithms registered already, and 250-300 new ones emerging every month. Here's why this matters, and what it tells us.

1/ This confirms what we’ve been observing: fierce competition in China’s AI landscape is not an accident. DeepSeek’s rise wasn’t a fluke—it was inevitable given the scale and diversity of experimentation happening under the radar.

2/ Key findings from Trivium’s analysis of China’s CAC registration data:

3,739 generative algorithmic tools (GATs) registered as of April 2025

~2,000 companies are deploying public-facing GATs

250–300 new tools registered each month

1,104 are B2B tools (more likely serious contenders)

3/ Where the action is: 80% of GATs are registered in Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu. 54% of all GATs are “foundational” (general LLMs, multimodal generators)—still very few vertical-specific applications. Top sectors seeing early verticalization: healthcare and education.

4/ Who’s leading: Alibaba: 66 registered GATs (the most, but not necessarily the most innovative) Tencent, NetEase, Baidu, ByteDance all active New-school players like DeepSeek, Baichuan, Moonshot only have a few registrations each but are making outsized impact

5/ State involvement: 22% of GATs registered by state-affiliated entities. China Mobile is surprisingly innovative among SOEs (Jiutian LLM, healthcare tools). Research labs like CAS (Chinese Academy of Sciences) are pursuing foundational projects.

6/ Foreign presence: Only 0.5% of registered GATs are from foreign multinationals. Most foreign tools are lightweight add-ons (e.g., Amazon customer support bots, IKEA smart shoppers) rather than deep foundational models.

7/ Our take - China’s generative AI race is chaotic but fertile. We should expect more DeepSeeks to emerge—not be surprised by them. Just like TikTok, Temu, and SHEIN, fierce domestic competition often breeds global winners.

8/ Also notable: We wrote extensively about Alibaba’s Qwen LLM leadership in a recent TBC Investor Newsletter (April 11 issue). This new registration data validates that Alibaba’s early dominance wasn’t a coincidence—it’s structural.

9/ Conclusion: Western analysts need to stop thinking of China’s tech advances as "out of nowhere." Competitive density + regulatory nudges = explosive innovation. The next global AI champions may already be listed in this CAC dataset.