Dalian, China, June 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The World Economic Forum’s 17th Annual Conference of New Champions (AMNC, also known as “Summer Davos”) was held from June 23 to 25 at the Dalian International Convention Center. Alex Yang, co-founder, COO, and CFO of Tuya Smart (NYSE: TUYA; HKEX: 2391), was invited to participate in multiple sessions including “China’s Lobster Fever,” “AI and Future Growth,” and “Owning the Interface: Strategies in the Age of AI Agents” to share his views on the evolving global AI landscape and the future of innovation at scale.
Themed “Innovation at Scale,” the forum brought together more than 1,700 leaders and innovators from government, business, and academia from more than 90 countries and territories to explore how artificial intelligence, industrial digitization, and new innovation models are reshaping economic growth and technology adoption.
A new phase of global AI innovation
Breakthrough advances in foundational models and AI agents are accelerating the rise of artificial intelligence as a new frontier in global technological competition. China’s AI industry and technology enterprises have attracted international attention through rapid commercialization and wide range of application scenarios. Reflecting this momentum, AI and digital transformation were among the most discussed topics at Summer Davos, with sessions exploring topics such as the boundaries of AI-first companies and the impact of increasingly autonomous cross-border AI agents.
Behind the scenes of China’s “lobster fever”
The proliferation of AI tools was one of the forum’s signature themes. In the session “China’s Lobster Fever,” Yang joined Kathie Li, Head of AI, Data and Metaverse at the World Economic Forum, and S. Alex Yang, Professor of Management Science and Operations at London Business School, to discuss the factors driving China’s rapid AI adoption and innovation.
China Lobster Fever Session with Alex Yang Yi, Co-Founder, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of PRC Tsuchiya. Cathy Li, Director of the Center for AI Excellence; Member of the World Economic Forum Executive Committee. Mr. Zhang Ying, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Sciences, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, People’s Republic of China, attended the New Champions Annual Meeting of Dalian, People’s Republic of China, on June 24, 2026, from 14:00 to 14:30 at Dalian International Conference Center, Hub 4 (Zone E). (Chinese Lobster Fever). ©2026 World Economic Forum
Yang pointed out that China’s ability to achieve large-scale AI adoption is the result of several enhanced advantages.
“First, there are a huge number of people in this country. developer’s These are the people who are actively exploring and building AI applications. Second, both individuals and businesses have shown an incredible openness to exploring and testing new technologies. More fundamentally, society as a whole’s strong desire for development and progress is a strong intrinsic driver of AI innovation. ”
“At Tuya, we are dedicated to bringing AI to a variety of real-world industry scenarios,” Yang added. “In the smart home space, we are lowering the barrier to building AI-native products through standardized AI modules and an active developer community. In the energy space, our AI solutions span the entire energy lifecycle, from generation and transmission to storage and consumption. By integrating real-time, dynamic electricity price data from over 800 power companies across Europe, our platform intelligently optimizes energy loads and helps users efficiently reduce their overall energy costs.”
Commenting on the commercialization of AI, Yang said the industry is moving from “traditional usage-based pricing models to outcome-driven value-based pricing models.” He added: “For companies, the winners in the AI era will be those that are not only early adopters of AI technology, but also those that build AI-native organizations and talent.”
China Lobster Fever Session with Alex Yang Yi, Co-Founder, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of PRC Tsuchiya. Cathy Li, Director of the Center for AI Excellence; Member of the World Economic Forum Executive Committee. Mr. Zhang Ying, Professor of Marketing and Behavioral Sciences, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, People’s Republic of China, attended the New Champions Annual Meeting of Dalian, People’s Republic of China, on June 24, 2026, from 14:00 to 14:30 at Dalian International Convention Center, Hub 4 (Zone E). (Chinese Lobster Fever). ©2026 World Economic Forum
Powering global AI applications through an open developer ecosystem
During Summer Davos, Mr. Yang also gave interviews to major global media outlets such as CNBC, Bloomberg, and CGTN, where he shared his views on commercializing AI applications, developing developer ecosystems, and deploying AI hardware at scale.
He emphasized that in an era of rapid technological change and accelerated industrial transformation, open innovation is essential to maintaining long-term competitiveness. Looking to the future, Tuya will continue to deepen its focus on AI Home, AI Energy, and AI Robotic applications, collaborating with global developers and ecosystem partners to advance AI from technological breakthroughs to large-scale deployments.
About Tuya Smart
Tuya Inc. (NYSE: TUYA; HKEX: 2391) is the world’s leading AI cloud platform service provider focused on bringing AI to everyday life. Through its universal AI agent engine, which includes the TuyaOpen open source development framework and AI agent development platform, Tuya integrates multimodal AI capabilities to lower the barrier to AI development, efficiently drive the realization of an AI-driven lifestyle, and accelerate the integration of AI and the physical world. Through its cloud computing and spatial intelligence capabilities, Tuya provides innovative physical AI solutions for smart devices, commercial applications, and industry developers. It also provides a complete, open and neutral global AIoT ecosystem.
As of March 31, 2026, the Tuya AI developer platform has over 1,970,000 registered AI developers from over 200 countries and regions.
