“China can become an ideal development place for industrial AI.” This judgment given by Zhan Jingtao, Vice President of Siemens (China), at the 7th Qingdao Summit of Multinational Company Leaders, directly revealed the German industrial giant’s core brand at this year’s Chain Expo.
The 4th Chain Expo opens tomorrow. The first Artificial Intelligence Zone has been established, bringing together leading domestic and foreign AI companies such as NVIDIA, Intel, Qualcomm, and Alibaba. It can be called a “Huashan Mountain Sword Discussion”.
Siemens did not appear in the AI zone, but the brands it brought—industrial AI agents, industrial intelligent decision-making systems, and AI-integrated green carbon reduction solutions—were all first launched in China.
This means that what Siemens is playing at this year’s Chain Expo is not the “computing power card” or the “large model card”, but the “industrial scene implementation” card.
To understand the weight of this card, you need to first see clearly the cards of all parties in this game.
The main theme of the AI Zone of this year’s Chain Expo is “technical breakthrough + scenario implementation”.
From this perspective, each player’s cards have been laid out.
NVIDIA has joined hands with domestic ecological partners such as Galaxy Universal Robots and Zhiyuan Robot to fully present the “five-layer cake” of the AI industry from energy, chips, infrastructure, models to applications, playing the full-stack ecological brand.
Alibaba focuses on displaying general large models and related cutting-edge products, playing the platform capability card.
PwC released a global artificial intelligence effectiveness research report with the theme of “AI Acceleration Track”, pointing out that Chinese enterprises’ AI adaptability has ranked among the first echelons in the world, and they are playing the cards of professional services and industry insights.
Siemens’ brand is completely different.
It does not sell computing power, large models, or consulting reports.
Its core products are industrial AI agents – an autonomous decision-making system for industrial scenarios, as well as industrial intelligent decision-making systems and green carbon reduction solutions.
Its target customers are not companies doing AI in the cloud, but factories running production lines in workshops.
This is not a positioning that comes out of thin air.
Siemens has three cards in hand that support its choice to go head-to-head in the vertical field of industrial AI.
The first card is technical reserves.
Siemens has more than 1,500 AI experts worldwide and 3,700 AI patent applications, ranking first in Europe.
In the industrial field, this set of numbers means that it is not “making a career in AI halfway”, but “growing AI capabilities in industrial genes.”
The second card is ecological layout.
Siemens has joined hands with more than 60 AI partners in China to accelerate the development and implementation of joint solutions.
Zhan Jingtao made it clear that the core value of industrial AI lies in “taking root in industrial scenarios, solving practical problems, and achieving large-scale implementation.”
In other words, Siemens is not here to demonstrate concepts, but to sell products that are already working.
The third card is the market foundation.
China has a solid automation industry foundation, accounting for more than 50% of the world’s annual new industrial robot installations.
This means that China has the most abundant industrial AI implementation scenarios and the fastest speed of large-scale verification.
This is the underlying logic behind Siemens’ choice to make a “China debut” rather than a “global debut” at the Chain Expo.
A noteworthy detail is that Siemens did not appear in the artificial intelligence area that received the most attention at this year’s Chain Expo.
This choice itself is playing cards.
The core identity of the companies in the AI zone is “AI companies”, and they compete for technical capabilities; while Siemens, as an industrial giant, competes for its ability to solve actual industrial problems.
This is tantamount to saying: I am not here to compete with NVIDIA on computing power, I am here to discuss production line optimization with the factory.
This move accurately avoids direct competition with the AI area, and at the same time draws the battlefield to the field in which it is best – industry.
While other AI companies are showing “how powerful my technology is,” Siemens is showing “what my technology can do in your factory.”
Looking at all the cards, the pattern of this game is clear.
Nvidia, Intel, and Qualcomm occupy the upper reaches of the AI industry chain—computing power, chips, and infrastructure.
Alibaba occupies the midstream – general large model and platform capabilities.
PwC occupies the service layer-consulting, evaluation, and industry research.
Siemens occupies the vertical application layer – exclusive AI solutions for industrial scenarios.
Judging from the cards, the parties currently have no direct conflict, but rather complement each other.
But the real game point is: who can be the first to achieve large-scale implementation in industrial scenarios?
Dai Pu pointed out that the Chinese market has “unparalleled cost advantages and speed advantages, and can carry out large-scale innovation and deployment faster and more efficiently than anywhere else.”
The next thing to watch is whether Siemens can announce specific implementation cases and customer lists for these industrial AI products in the short term after their debut at this CIIE. This is not only related to the strategic advancement of Siemens, but also whether the track of “industrial AI scale” can really take off.
