
ByteDance, Tencent, and Alibaba are ramping up recruitment for forward-deployed engineers as demand surges.
Chinese tech giants including ByteDance, Tencent, and Alibaba are offering annual pay packages up to 1 million yuan to attract AI engineers, as demand for forward-deployed engineers surges across the country.
AI-generated summary
Chinese technology companies are scaling up artificial intelligence capabilities and seeking to commercialize AI models.
Chinese technology giants are dangling annual pay packages approaching 1 million yuan (US$149,739) to attract artificial intelligence engineers who can turn AI models into commercial applications.
Companies including ByteDance, Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group Holding are stepping up recruitment and training of the so-called forward-deployed engineers (FDEs), who work directly with customers to develop and integrate AI applications into business operations.
Demand for such professionals has been soaring. Job postings for FDEs in China surged 1,523 per cent in the first seven months from the same period in 2025, according to data from domestic professional networking platform Maimai, making it the fastest-growing AI technical role covered by the report.

An AI virtual internet celebrity named "Xiao Hai" has appeared on China's short-form video platform. He uses realistic crying scenes and sad words to win sympathy from the elders and promote live broadcasts. This scam exploits the loneliness of seniors to defraud them of money. It has triggered official investigations and called on family members to pay attention to their elders' mobile phone usage.

The 2026 "Data Elements ×" National Finals Award Ceremony was held in Beijing recently, and 330 final evaluation projects won awards. This competition attracted more than 29,000 teams to sign up, demonstrating the in-depth transformation of data elements from single-point applications to process intelligence.

AI toys are becoming a new choice for young people seeking emotional companionship. Relying on large-scale model technology, AI plush and desktop toys such as Fuzai, Ropet, and Loona have achieved hot sales with their memory capabilities and interactivity. Online sales have increased significantly in the first half of this year, and the traditional toy industry has also accelerated its transformation to intelligence.

According to a survey released by the International Chamber of Commerce on Friday, 50% of the chambers of commerce surveyed believe that China leads the world in AI R&D and application, compared with 38% of the United States. At the same time, about 90% of chambers of commerce expect AI to increase productivity, but half are worried about the reduction of administrative jobs.

Apple is expected to hold a new product media experience event on October 28, US time. It is rumored that it will launch the first MacBook Pro equipped with a touch screen and OLED, M6 chip MacBook Pro and iMac, as well as a major redesign of the iPad mini 8.

According to "Tom's Hardware" reports, Chinese factories are dismantling Huida RTX 5090 graphics cards on a large scale and transplanting core components to server-specific cards to support AI computing. The move resulted in inventory shortages in the retail market and prices soared to nearly $10,000, showing the alarming scale of China’s AI gray market.