Zhipu Absent, DeepSeek Invisible, StepFun Selling Phones — WAIC Shows China's LLM Shift to Commercialization

The 2026 World AI Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai this week presented a very different picture from previous years. Instead of competing to announce new flagship models, China's top large language model companies adopted sharply divergent exhibition strategies, reflecting the industry's broader pivot from model benchmarks to commercial deployment.

According to reports from Times Online, Zhipu AI was entirely absent from WAIC this year — no booth, no major forum participation. As one of China's leading LLM startups, Zhipu's absence sparked considerable discussion among industry observers.

DeepSeek, known for its open-source models and strong reasoning capabilities, also chose a low-profile approach at the conference. The company did not stage major promotional activities or product announcements, consistent with what analysts describe as a strategy focused on technical R&D rather than market outreach.

StepFun (Jieyue Xingchen), founded by former Microsoft VP Jiang Daxin, took the opposite approach, actively promoting its phone-embedded AI products on the show floor. The image of an LLM company “selling phones” at WAIC encapsulates the industry's broader trajectory from cloud-based model competition to consumer-device deployment.

The strategic divergence among LLM companies at WAIC highlights a fundamental shift in China's AI industry. After two years of intensive model releases, market evaluation criteria have moved from parameter counts and benchmark scores to real-world deployment capability and user acquisition.

WAIC this year presented a mixed picture: embodied AI, world models, and AI hardware pavilions drew massive crowds, with JD.com showcasing its full JoyAI model lineup and smart home solutions. Meanwhile, several pure-play model companies scaled back their exhibition presence, reflecting the industry's challenging transition from technology-driven to business-driven priorities.

Industry insiders note that 2026 is shaping up to be the “year of landing” for China's LLM sector. The ability to generate tangible value in real business scenarios will determine which companies ultimately prevail in this new phase of competition.