Beijing signals support for big tech

Policy support for the platform economy is in the pipeline.

Per the readout of Friday's State Council executive meeting:

• “Developing the platform economy…plays a vital role in…fostering New Quality Productive Forces (NQPF).” 

Why this comment matters: This is the first time the platform economy has been explicitly tied to the NQPF campaign – Xi Jinping's initiative to drive tech innovation. 

• It’s one of the only public recognitions of the sector's importance since it fell out of favor with Beijing during the 2020 tech crackdown.

The State Council pledged to “increase policy support” for the platform economy, though specifics remain unclear.

Get smart: Policy support could provide a massive boost for China’s platform companies – but only if it's properly targeted.

• China's tech giants desperately need help in developing generative AI capabilities, where US companies lead on every metric, particularly in compute infrastructure.
• To better compete with their US peers in the generative AI race, Chinese firms need subsidies for data centers and advanced chipmaking.

Our question: Will Beijing finally deliver on providing meaningful policy support for generative AI?