Major state-owned enterprises ( SOEs ) in China have connected to DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence model after the central government launched an” AI ” program to call for boosting efficiency.
According to Xinhua, at least 20 of the main government’s businesses have integrated DeepSeek into their businesses. These firms are engaged in the energy, telecom, automobile, economic and construction companies.  ,
In the energy and chemical sectors, Sinopec, PetroChina, CNOOC, Sinochem, China National Nuclear Power Co, China General Nuclear Power Group, China Southern Power Grid and China Oil and Gas Pipeline Network Corp ( PipeChina ) said they have already linked their AI models to DeepSeek-R1, which was launched on January 20.
” With DeepSeek and other large language models ( LLMs), PipeChina’s oil and gas control centers can set up their production plans within minutes instead of four hours”, Xu Kun, deputy general manager of Beijing Zhiwang Digital Technology Company, a unit of PipeChiona, told the China Central TV in an interview. They can increase AI models ‘ accuracy by 10 %, they say.
LLMs refer to artificial intelligence ( AI ) that can process natural language processing ( NLP ) or understand human language.  ,  ,
In addition, PipeChina you use DeepSeek to shorten the time it takes to build sugar caverns for gas storage by tens of days, according to Xu.  ,
PipeChina, controlled by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission ( SASAC ) of the State Council, is the construction contractor for the China–Russia East-Route Natural Gas Pipeline, or the Power of Siberia. 38 billion square feet of natural gas are transported each year from Russia’s northeast Siberia to northern China through the network.
Beijing Zhiwang Digital Technology was established by PipeChina in 2022 to digitalize its activities.
Last December, PipeChina launched its” Pipeline Network” AI type using Huawei Cloud. It claimed to have used the concept in 80 more applications and had deployed it in more than 20 of those scenarios.
Beijing’s prepare
On February 17, Chinese President Xi Jinping met business officials at a , conference in Beijing. These firm heads included Huawei Technologies ‘ Ren Zhengfei, Alibaba’s Jack Ma, Tencent’s Pony Ma, DeepSeek’s Liang Wenfeng and Unitree’s Wang Xingxing.
To discuss the outcomes of their AI growth and establish a course of action, the SASAC convened with a group of core SOEs on February 19. SOEs refer to all state-owned companies controlled by the central and local governments, while key SOEs are those owned by the central state.
Central SOEs may make the most of the time’s corporate window to grow the AI industry. They should strengthen LLMs, focus on applying core technologies, develop an empty ecosystem, develop unique innovations’ from 0 to 1′ and commercialize medical achievements”, the meeting said.
The central government should put forth more efforts to encourage the use of AI technology by Central SOEs, highlight the development of AI technology in the upcoming 15th Five-Year Plan ( 2026-2030 ), and encourage the establishment of more renowned AI start-ups and startups, according to it.
” Artificial competition is all about information level and value”, Zhou Lisa, a scientist at the China Enterprise Reform and Development Society, a study unit of SASAC, told Xinhua. ” Central SOEs have substantial data resources, so they can use DeepSeek to share and marketize their data” . ,
” Some SOEs in the energy field have already used AI to promote intelligent change. Connecting with DeepSeek may allow them to provide even more remedies”, she said.
She cited examples of how Sinochem used DeepSeek’s capabilities to analyze complex knowledge, logical reasoning, and open-domain expertise to address the requirements of various company scenarios, and how China Southern Power Grid upgraded its AI type called Big Watt to gather information about facility damages.  ,  ,
Challenges
In the last few decades, China has been creating AI designs for business use.
In May last month, China Mobile launched its Jiutian AI unit, which has expert knowledge in 15 industries, including telecommunications, energy technology, logistics, energy, metal, construction, transportation and aviation. It said it would tailor-make AI designs for 40 more business.  ,
In July, China Telecom launched a relational AI type called TeleChat2, which is great at picture editing and graphic design. The organization said TeleChat2, which understands unique Chinese dialects, can be commonly used in people companies across different towns.  ,
However, problems remained when Taiwanese firms tried integrating their Internet-of-Things and AI technology.
China Southern Power Grid’s AI professional Dong Zhaojie claimed in June 2024 that the company used drones to inspect its electricity distribution wires and that it had taken over ten thousand pictures of broken pins on them.
He claimed that the AI model would be able to tell the split pins that had split infected from the pictures, but it was not. According to him, engineers were finally required to visit the sites to gather data and instruct the AI model that there might be 500 different types of split pin damage.
He said that once the AI model started working, the company saved about 10 million yuan ( US$ 1.37 million ) in annual expenses for finding damaged split pins.
A Jiangsu-based commentator named Qianqian warns that AI could replace tens of millions of Chinese jobs, from factory workers and deliverers to medical professionals and civil servants, while state media praise China’s advancement in AI technologies. She advises people to continue to acquire new skills in order to keep their jobs.
The Asia Times has Yong Jian as a contributor. He is a Chinese journalist who specializes in Chinese technology, economy and politics.  ,
Read: China integrates everything into its nationwide plan for DeepSeek.