Across China, the rapid rise of individual enterprises (OPCs), powered by artificial intelligence tools and strong ecosystem support, is reshaping entrepreneurship, with innovators working as virtual teams leveraging AI to drive business creation and growth.
According to a recent report from Beijing’s Zhongguancun Talent Association, large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen in Guangdong province are increasingly becoming top choices for OPCs, especially for local science and technology parks. The proliferation of AI technologies, government support, and talent pools are among the key factors attracting private companies and driving growth.
Dong Bo, president of Kr Star Innovation, operator of ZGC AI North Latitude Hub, an AI development hub in Beijing’s Haidian District, described the hub as an enterprise cluster that provides a supportive ecology for high-tech businesses. Its mission is to help integrate AI-driven enterprises, technology media, developers, and tool chain providers (entities that offer a comprehensive suite of tools to build and manage AI applications).
The hub currently hosts 20 OPCs, whose entrepreneurs primarily come from national and international universities and technology companies.
One of the members of the hub is 44-year-old entrepreneur Wu Zhen. He joined in January as founder of the Intelligent Virtual Performance Platform.
The platform initially served as a cross-city, cross-cultural digital performance solution during the pandemic, but now supports a wide range of applications including stage-based educational courses, motion capture, AI-generated short films, and AI virtual idols.
According to Wu, AI will function as a 24-hour virtual team and play a key role in copywriting, content generation, visual and video creation, and basic software and web development. AI adapts content to cultural tourism scenarios, such as AI-generated content light shows.
“In the age of AI, what is really missing is judgment, aesthetic sensibility, and long-term narrative vision. OPC is not a transitional form. OPC has the potential to remain an important and dynamic organizational model for a long time,” he said.
Mr. Wu himself represents the rapid development of OPC. The report also revealed that as of June 2025, the number of private limited liability companies, mainly in the digital economy and service industries, exceeded 16 million nationwide. The number of newly registered OPCs reached 2.86 million in the first half of 2025, an increase of 47% year-on-year.
Similar to cross-border e-commerce, the use of AI digital humans has allowed OPC to reduce labor costs by 70% and increase sales by 300%.
But Wu said private companies, including his own, are struggling with a lack of a steady order pipeline and revenue.
Li Xiaolei, director of the Institute of Regional Industry Research, Guangdong Provincial Research Center, suggested that the government introduce open competition to enable OPCs to undertake targeted projects and provide comprehensive access to computing power and shared data.
In January, the city of Shenzhen provided OPC with significant financial support and issued vouchers to reduce start-up costs. The city is also addressing workspace and accommodation needs.
Yang Chen Contributed to this story.
wangsongsong@chinadaily.com.cn
