April 2026 exports jumped 14.1% year-over-year, nearly doubling the median forecast of 8.4%. AI-related products accounted for roughly half of that growth, while integrated circuit exports alone surged 72.6%. The yuan has strengthened for six consecutive quarters to around 6.8 CNY/USD.
The AI export engine
Integrated circuits tell the story most clearly. A 72.6% increase in IC exports reflects years of deliberate industrial policy now bearing fruit, accelerated by the ironic consequence of US export controls. Washington’s restrictions on advanced chip sales to China were designed to slow Beijing’s AI ambitions. Instead, they created a pressure cooker for domestic innovation.
DeepSeek’s V4 model, unveiled on April 24, 2026, exemplifies this pivot. The model is optimized specifically for Huawei’s domestically produced chips, sidestepping the need for NVIDIA hardware that US restrictions have made harder to obtain.
By the end of 2025, China’s core AI industry had crossed the 1.2 trillion yuan mark in output value, roughly $174 billion.
