The Gulou AiOPC community in Haishu district, Ningbo. [Photo provided to Tide News]

Ningbo is seeking public input on a draft policy to support innovation and entrepreneurship by AI one-person companies, as it steps up efforts to build a stronger artificial intelligence ecosystem.

Under the draft, titled Several Measures of Ningbo on Supporting Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development of Artificial Intelligence One-Person Companies, the city plans to introduce nine core measures covering the full life cycle of one-person companies. By the end of 2028, Ningbo aims to build more than 10 municipal-level benchmark communities and attract more than 10,000 one-person entrepreneurs citywide.

The city said it will provide lightweight and lower-cost computing services for one-person companies. It will also support districts and county-level cities in setting up annual computing capacity guarantee mechanisms to offer eligible users a quota of free computing resources.

Ningbo has also set targets for industrial applications. By 2028, it plans to build 100 landmark "AI plus manufacturing" projects, help 1,000 manufacturing enterprises achieve deeper AI adoption, develop 100 high-quality solutions for "AI plus manufacturing" applications, and train 1,000 high-level engineers in the field.

A woman conducts a livestream showcasing customized dolls at the Gulou AiOPC community. [Photo provided to Tide News]

The draft also proposes support for the use of open-source tools to develop models for specific industries and encourages the establishment of joint open-source laboratories focused on "AI plus manufacturing". It says OPCs will be encouraged to apply agent tools in industries where Ningbo has strengths, including intelligent manufacturing and cross-border e-commerce.

The move builds on the city's broader push into artificial intelligence. Ningbo had over 1.45 million market entities by the end of 2025, including more than 610,000 enterprises and more than 830,000 self-employed businesses.

In May last year, the city rolled out its "artificial intelligence plus" initiative, and an action plan issued in October set targets of 120 billion yuan ($17.37 billion) in core AI industry output by 2027 and 180 billion yuan by 2030, to move into the top tier nationally.