The fifth Global Digital Trade Expo (GDTE) opened on September 23 in East China's Zhejiang Province, with AI-related exhibitors making up over a third of the lineup.
The GDTE is China's only national-level expo dedicated to digital trade. According to the announcement by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on September 22, Prime Minister of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim and Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan Adylbek Aleshovich Kasymaliev will attend the launching ceremony of the fifth Global Digital Trade Expo, scheduled for the following day.
More than 2,000 exhibitors are taking part across eight exhibition zones under the theme "Meet the AI Future at GDTE," spanning areas such as e-commerce, AI applications, smart mobility, digital entertainment, digital healthcare and spatial intelligence. Together, they feature a rich portfolio of AI-powered applications in digital trade, with a total exhibition space of 170,000 square meters.
This year's expo is packed with high-tech debuts. A dedicated Token Zone has been introduced for the first time, offering a one-stop showcase of the full industrial chain from computing power foundations such as intelligent computing chips, to model services such as mainstream large language models, and application scenarios including "AI + foreign trade," "AI + healthcare" and "AI + space."
On the show floor, visitors can see the world's first mass-produced 3-meter manned transforming mecha, the global debut of second-generation smart glasses, and a lunar exploration robot prototype. An embodied intelligence robot challenge is drawing more than 100 teams to compete in races and tug-of-war. Over 200 AI models, including Tongyi Qwen and DeepSeek, are also on display.
International participation at the fifth edition also breaks records. The number of overseas delegations has exceeded the total of all previous editions, with international exhibitors making up more than 20 percent of participants. In addition, over 50,000 professional buyers from 163 countries and regions have registered, alongside major global platforms such as Alibaba, Google and Amazon.
Reporter | Huang Xinyi
Photos | Huang Xinyi, Global Digital Trade Expo official
