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China’s AI-related exports surge past other manufacturing sectors

As international trade continues to lead China’s economy while consumption lags, we’re zeroing in on the “AI effect.”

Like the US, where the data-center buildout offset a mixed picture in the rest of the economy, high-tech goods related to artificial intelligence have been China’s 2025-26 export bright spots.

We’ve created a proxy for AI-related hardware and broken out this category’s share of Chinese export growth; it’s having its strongest run on that basis in 20 years. Meanwhile, traditional, labor-intensive export industries that drove earlier phases of Chinese industrialization (the “old three,” which include apparel and furniture) were in retreat.

CEIC users can access more charts and the full data story here.