The global AI industry is shifting from a training-led phase to one driven increasingly by inference services and real-world deployment. In this transition, the key determinants of competitiveness are no longer limited to model size or isolated technical performance. They now extend to energy costs, compute supply, ecosystem depth, service delivery and cross-border coordination.
Skyward Fund believes that the next stage of competitive strength for Chinese foundation models will emerge from the interaction between green power, compute infrastructure and global service delivery.
From an industry-chain perspective, green electricity is no longer just an energy input. In the AI era, it is becoming a core source of compute cost advantage. Lower power costs, once translated through data centers, intelligent compute clusters and inference platforms, ultimately become more competitive AI service capacity. Electricity is the foundational resource, compute is the intermediate productive force, and model APIs, generative applications and vertical solutions are the higher value-added forms of service export.
This shift suggests that China’s long-term accumulation in renewable energy and compute infrastructure is beginning to provide a stronger foundation for the global expansion of its AI industry.
At the same time, the business model of AI is changing. Unlike traditional hardware exports, AI services create recurring relationships in usage, subscription and settlement. Every model call, every inference request and every generated output is, in essence, a micro digital-service transaction. As such transactions become more cross-border, high-frequency, low-ticket and real-time, delivery capability, settlement systems and compliance frameworks will become increasingly important.
In this context, the competitiveness of Chinese AI companies lies not only in model capability itself, but also in cost efficiency, open-source ecosystems and scalable service delivery. As open-source models continue to expand, enterprise inference demand grows rapidly and multimodal applications deepen, Chinese model companies have an opportunity to establish a clearer comparative advantage in the global AI services market.
This is precisely where Skyward Fund sees medium- to long-term investment opportunities.
More specifically, the fund will continue to focus on several areas: first, compute infrastructure and data center capabilities supported by green energy; second, cross-regional nodes, network coordination and delivery capacity required for Chinese AI services going global; third, AI applications and industry solutions serving international markets; and fourth, new infrastructure and business models emerging around compute services, digital trade and cross-border settlement.
From a regional perspective, the Greater Bay Area is showing unique potential for coordination. It combines industrial depth, capital access and international connectivity, while also offering practical conditions for carrying compute capacity and serving global markets. For investors, this means taking a more systemic view of how resources and value are being restructured behind AI going global, rather than focusing only on individual model companies in the short term.
Skyward Fund believes that the long-term value of the AI industry will depend not only on who owns the strongest models, but also on who can effectively connect energy advantages, compute foundations, application ecosystems and international service capabilities into a sustainable industrial loop. Investment research and industry positioning around this direction deserve continued attention.