Source: Reuters
Local governments from Hangzhou to Shanghai are deploying the same playbook that built China's tech dominance—direct cash incentives, infrastructure gifts, and tax breaks—but now targeting AI creative tools as a strategic industry. They are moving beyond treating generative video as a consumer toy to viewing it as critical infrastructure, similar to their development of semiconductor and e-commerce clusters. The subsidy competition signals that control over the supply chain for AI-native content creation (studios, training data, model optimization) will shape commercial and cultural standards in the sector.