A
Track A — Open Source Models & AI Infra
The main track and main-stage story. Covers open models, inference engines, local deployment, platform APIs, evals, tooling, and production reliability.
November 5–6, 2026 • Shanghai, China
AI Engineer
Shanghai
Where China’s AI frontier meets the world’s best researchers.
800 attendees — half from China’s top AI labs, half international researchers — for two days of deep technical content on LLM research and physical AI.
Talks will be in English or Mandarin with live translation provided for both languages.
800
Attendees
2
Days
50/50
China / International
1st
AI Engineer in China
About the conference
Where research meets
production
production
China is at the frontier of AI — DeepSeek, Qwen, Unitree, and the world’s largest autonomous vehicle fleet. AI Engineer Shanghai brings this ecosystem together with the global research community on November 5–6, 2026.
Live demos, candid conversations about what’s actually working, and the cross-border connections that only happen when you put these communities in the same room.
Not a trade show. The people pushing the state of the art, sharing hard-earned lessons and building relationships across the most important axis in AI.
From past AI Engineer flagship events
01 / 12
Featuring speakers & sponsors from
Meta
CursorConference tracks
Open Models &
Physical AI
Physical AI
B
Track B — Physical AI
The second engineering frontier. Covers VLA / robot foundation models, robot data, simulation and Sim2Real, robot inference, deployment, safety, and real demos. Connects back to Track A: what changes when inference, evals, and deployment move from software into the physical world?
Schedule
Conference
schedule*
schedule*
* The agenda shown below is for demonstration purposes only and is subject to change. Session topics, speakers, and timing may be updated prior to the event.
Main Stage
8:30 AM–9:30 AMRegistration & Coffee
9:30 AM–9:45 AMOpening: Why AI Engineer, Why Shanghai
9:45 AM–10:10 AMThe State of AI Engineering 2026
10:10 AM–10:35 AMRebuilding the Stack for AI
10:35 AM–11:00 AMInside the OpenAI Platform
11:00 AM–11:20 AMBreak
11:20 AM–11:45 AMChina’s Open-source Model Moment
11:45 AM–12:15 PMFireside: China’s Path to AGI
12:15 PM–1:30 PMLunch & Hallway Track
Track A — Main Stage
1:30 PM–1:55 PMLocal AI is Eating the Cloud
1:55 PM–2:20 PMSGLang: Reducing Inference Cost
2:20 PM–2:45 PMBuilding Product Moats Across Open and Closed Models
2:45 PM–3:05 PMBreak
3:05 PM–3:30 PMEvals Are All You Need
3:30 PM–4:10 PMPanel: Open vs Closed at the Infra Layer
4:10 PM–5:00 PMLightning Demos: 6 × 7 minutes
Track B — Track Room
1:30 PM–2:00 PMPhysical AI Keynote
2:00 PM–2:30 PMVLA / Robot Foundation Models
2:30 PM–3:00 PMSimulation, Data, and Sim2Real
3:00 PM–3:20 PMBreak
3:20 PM–4:10 PMPanel: What AI Infra Do Robots Need?
4:10 PM–5:00 PMPhysical AI Demo Hour
Evening
5:00 PM–5:30 PMDay 1 wrap-up and Day 2 preview
6:00 PM–8:30 PMSpeaker dinner + networking reception
Speakers
The researchers and engineers
shaping the conversation
shaping the conversation
AI Engineer Shanghai brings together researchers and engineers from China’s leading AI labs and top international groups for two days of deep technical talks. We’re looking for speakers who can share hard-earned lessons on LLM research, physical AI, and multi-agent systems.
We invite you to submit your abstract and speaker information. You are highly encouraged to:
Key Dates for Speakers
August 15First Draft Submission Deadline
Late AugustFirst Wave Speaker Announcements
October 7ALL Submissions Deadline
October 10Final Wave Announcements
All submissions are reviewed using the same criteria; deadlines only affect review timing and announcement date.
Talk Lengths
Workshops
Stage Talk
Lightning Talk
During your session, dive right into the content with minimal self-introduction — the MC will introduce you. Your talk will be professionally recorded and published on our YouTube, X, and LinkedIn.
We invite you to submit your abstract and speaker information. You are highly encouraged to:
- Pick non-boring titles (you CAN change your mind later) and look at the best talks from past AIE confs and peer conferences. Your chances are ~epsilon if you simply resubmit talks that look at home at generic AI conferences.
- Multiple submissions are welcome and not held against you — you don’t need to guess at what we want. We just need to know the rough direction of 1–5 topics you could speak about.
Venue
Hilton Shanghai
Hongqiao
Hongqiao
Located in Shanghai’s Hongqiao business district, the Hilton Shanghai Hongqiao is a five-star hotel designed for international business events and conferences. Just a short drive from Hongqiao International Airport and the National Exhibition and Convention Center (NECC), the hotel features spacious ballrooms, state-of-the-art meeting facilities, and luxury accommodations. Its convenient location and conference facilities make it a premier venue for global business and technology events.
Check out the hotel →
Sponsors
Partner
with us
with us
AI Engineer Shanghai puts your brand in front of 800 AI researchers and engineers — half from China’s top labs, half international. Limited sponsorship packages available.
Sponsorship inquiry →
Visa information
Entry requirements for
China
China
US Passport Holders
US citizens are not on China’s 30-day visa-free list, but there are two good options depending on your travel route:
Most of European Countries, Canada, UK, Australia, Japan & South Korea
30-day visa-free
Citizens of 35 European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, UK, Switzerland, and more) enjoy 30-day visa-free entry to China until December 31, 2026. No advance visa application needed. Just arrive with a valid passport.
Covers tourism, business, and transit. Full list includes all major EU/EEA countries plus the UK, Switzerland, and Norway.
All other Nationalities (e.g., India, South Africa, Mexico)
Visa Required
Fill out the Visa Letter Request Form here after booking your ticket, and take the generated document to your local consulate to apply for your China entry visa.
Visa policies can change quickly. Regardless of your nationality, please confirm your specific requirements, local consulate locations, and the most up-to-date documentation checklists via the official Chinese Visa Application Service Center Portal (www.visaforchina.cn).
Watch
Previous AI Engineer livestreams
AI Engineer Europe 2026
A recent global AI Engineer livestream while Shanghai-specific programming is finalized.
AI Engineer World's Fair 2024
A prior flagship recording from the AI Engineer channel.
Tickets
Get
tickets
tickets
Choose the checkout path that matches your payment method.
Ticket options
Available options:
Organized by
Standup Partners is a San Francisco-based advisory helping AI companies build growth engines and expand between the US and China. The team has built and advised growth at Braintrust, Notion, MotherDuck, Statsig (acquired by OpenAI), and Tencent, and advises AI and developer-tool companies on GTM, data, and cross-border strategy.
