How do Chinese innovation pioneers organize for their Day After Tomorrow? Which Day After Tomorrow technologies are they investing in? What are their business models for the Day After Tomorrow?

Our tour will open your eyes to the rich possibilities of the East, shift your perspective and showcase tangible answers to the questions described above. Prepare to be blown away.

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China is well on its way to becoming one of the top innovation nations in the world. For the last years, top pioneers in China have been outnumbering – and even out-innovating – the top companies in Silicon Valley. Alibaba, Tencent and Youku Tudou are just some of the most well-known examples. But the region is also a true hotbed for fresh and leading edge start-ups and scale-ups like Xiaomi, Didi Chuxing and Lu.com. One of the most striking differences with the West is the scale & speed of their endeavours. Chinese organizations do not just ‘Think Big’. They ‘Think Huge’: beyond their company, beyond their products, their services, their country, their target market, and their competition. We have a lot to learn from their ambition.

Join us on an eye-opening innovation tour to Beijing and Shanghai, two of the fastest growing innovation hubs in the world. Together we’ll experience how Chinese organizations are able to innovate on such a mind-blowing scale, which role the government or the national culture have to play in this and what the latest tech and business trends of the East are. This tour will literally turn your perspective upside down.

We’ll start this trip in Beijing, to follow the trail of money. Expect gritty start-ups, bootstrapping their way to unicornship, and – what they call – ‘scale-ups’, worth a whopping 4 billion dollars. We’ll dive into how the venture battle works and end with some of the big guys sharing their journey to world domination.

Fortune released its latest Global Top 500 last week, and 120 Chinese companies – including those from Hong Kong and Taiwan – made the list, closing in with the number of U.S. companies, which leads with 126. The number of Global Top 500 companies from China is far ahead of those from Japan, which ranks 3rd with 52. The increase in the number of Chinese companies, which has been growing for 15 years, is one of the fastest from any country since 1995, and the improvement in ranking reflects the fast growth of the Chinese economy. China could overtake the U.S. in 2019. 

ased on annual revenue, State Grid Corp, Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corp made the top 10, occupying the 2nd, 3rd and 4th spot, with revenue of USD348.9 billion, USD326.9 billion and USD326 billion, respectively.

Feng Liguo, Research Fellow at China Minsheng Bank’s research center, said that while some Chinese firms are making gains in terms of innovation and diversification, there is still a long way to go before Chinese companies can truly be called great companies.

Many of the Chinese companies are still profiting based on material prices and China’s financial sector is posting better results than the manufacturing and services sectors,” Feng said, noting that the pattern reflects China’s developmental stage within the industrial period, in contrast to the U.S. post-industrial state. By sector, Chinese companies are concentrated in heavy and chemical industries, real estate, engineering and the metals sectors. In contrast, many Top 500 companies from the U.S. and Japan come from the internet, healthcare and food industries. State-owned firms still account for two-thirds of Chinese companies on the list.

In terms of profitability, four Chinese state-owned banks, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and China Construction Bank (CCB), are among the top 10. Among the 12 Chinese companies in the most profitable 50 list, only Ping An Insurance, Tencent, and Alibaba are not state-owned companies. Thirteen Chinese companies made their debut on the list, including China Merchants Group, mining company Yankuang Group and home appliance giant Haier. China conglomerate HNA, Anbang Insurance and Wanda Group, which were previously on the list, fell out as their revenue shrank, the South China Morning Post reports.

China’s private companies and tech giants are quickly moving up the list. JD.com ranks at 181, up 80 places from 261 in 2017, Tencent Holdings has moved up 147 places, from 478 to 331 this year, while Alibaba Group Holding rose from 462 last year to 300 this year. “We will see more innovative and high-tech Chinese companies join the list, against the backdrop of China’s rapid developments in artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT) and big data,” said Tiger Shan, Partner at Strategy&, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ strategy consulting business.

The Fortune Global Top 500 is available here.

BMW has received the green light to raise its stake to 75% in its onshore venture, becoming the first foreign manufacturer to get a super majority control. The German carmaker, currently holding 50% of its venture with Brilliance China Automotive Holdings, is likely to restructure the ownership by 2022 when the relevant rules by Beijing become effective. “We will sign an agreement or a contract if you’re ready,” Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said during a meeting in Beijing with European Union politicians and business leaders that included BMW representatives.

The Chinese leadership’s approval of BMW’s plan came a week after Tesla, the U.S. electric carmaker, signed an agreement with the Shanghai government to build its first overseas assembly plant at Lingang with an annual capacity of 500,000 units. A consolidated foothold in China will effectively help BMW offset the negative impact from the Sino-U.S. trade war since it is the biggest exporter of vehicles from the U.S. to China. Global carmakers that want to assemble and sell in the world’s largest vehicle market are required to form ventures with local Chinese companies, and are limited to no more than two ventures, and allowed to own no more than a 50% stake. In April, the Chinese government said it would scrap the 50% ownership cap on foreign passenger vehicle makers by 2022.

“It is still highly likely that BMW’s stake in the venture will be raised in 2022 because the new rules will take effect at that time,” said Cui Dongshu, Secretary General of the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). “Other foreign carmakers, now subject to the 50% ownership limit, are also expected to apply to raise their stakes.” Earlier this month, BMW and Brilliance signed an agreement to expand the production of the Shenyang-based venture to 520,000 units in 2019, after it spent USD1.2 billion in 2017 to lift the annual capacity to 450,000 vehicles. An expanded output from its China JV can cut BMW’s reliance on imports from its U.S.-based factories, the South China Morning Post reports.

China’s artificial intelligence (AI) industry has attracted the most funding, accounting for 60% of all global investment from 2013 to the first quarter of 2018, but still lags behind the U.S. in terms of AI talent, according to a new study by Tsinghua University. By the end of 2017, China had amassed an AI talent pool of 18,232 people, accounting for 8.9% of the world’s total talent and well behind the 13.9% share held by the U.S. The top 10 countries accounted for 60% of AI talent. The report also stressed the country’s shortage of high level AI talent – those who produce research of high quality – with China only having one-fifth the number of the U.S. in this category.

In terms of AI research, China ranks first in the quantity and citation of research papers, and holds the most AI patents, edging out the U.S. and Japan, the report shows. China’s AI market was worth CNY23.74 billion in 2017, up 67% from the year before, with computer vision, voice, and natural language processing accounting for most of the market. The report estimates China’s AI market will grow by 75% in 2018.

China has not been shy about its ambitions for AI dominance, with the government releasing a road map in July 2017 with a goal of creating a domestic industry worth CNY1 trillion and becoming a global AI powerhouse by 2030. Last November China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MIIT) identified internet giants Baidu, Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings – collectively known as BAT – and voice intelligence specialist iFlyTek, as the first group of “national champions” to spur development of next generation AI technologies that are vital to everything from voice activated digital assistants to self-driving cars. The central government’s recent initiatives included the announcement in January of a USD2.1 billion blueprint to build an AI industrial park in the suburbs of Beijing, and the Ministry of Education’s launch in April of a five-year AI talent training program.

In terms of AI investment, Beijing is far ahead of other Chinese cities with more than CNY250 billion raised from over 450 deals from 2015 to the first quarter of 2018, followed by Shanghai with CNY50 billion raised. SenseTime, a Beijing-based start-up known for providing AI-powered surveillance software for China’s police, is the world’s most valuable AI start-up with a valuation of more than USD4.5 billion, after raising USD600 million from Alibaba in April, the South China Morning Post reports.

A series of statistics released in the past week by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) point to the steady advance of the Chinese economy. Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 6.8% year-on-year in the first six months. It was expected to expand 6.5% in 2018, consistent with the government’s target. The country’s economy grew 6.9% in 2017, picking up the pace for the first time in seven years. China’s fixed asset investment (FAI) grew 6% year-on-year in the first half of this year, 1.5 percentage points lower than in the first three months.

Disposable income per capita in China expanded 6.6% year-on-year in January to June, according to a UBS report. China’s consumption showed ample resilience despite trade friction in the first half, contributing to 78.5% of GDP growth, up from 58.8% last year.

The government is dedicated to curbing rising house prices this year. In June, house prices in the first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen were stable compared with the prices in May. New home prices declined year-on-year in seven of the 15 “hotspot” cities, where speculative home purchases are monitored, while eight other cities posted growth. Data showed CNY5.66 trillion of new homes were sold in the first half of 2018, a year-on-year rise of 14.8%.

China saw steady tax revenue in the first half of this year. A total of CNY8.2 trillion was collected, excluding export tax rebates, up 15.3% year-on-year. Both the industrial and service sectors posted robust tax revenue growth, up 14.7% and 13.2% year-on-year respectively in the year’s first half and maintaining double-digit growth for six quarters. Revenue from the software and information technology sub-sector grew 29.3% year-on-year. Tax revenue in the retail sector rose 20.5% in H1, indicating strong consumption momentum.

China’s non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) saw steady growth in the first half of 2018. Domestic investors made USD57.2 billion of non-financial ODI in over 3,600 overseas enterprises in 151 countries and regions in the first six months, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said, up 18.7% from the same period last year. ODI in Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries rose 12% from a year earlier to USD7.4 billion. The structure of outbound investment continued to improve, with investment mainly going into leasing and business services, manufacturing, mining and retail and wholesale sectors. No new projects were reported in sectors such as property development, sports and entertainment. By end-June, China had 113 economic and trade cooperation zones in 46 countries, with a total investment of USD34.9 billion.

In terms of foreign direct investment (FDI), 29,591 foreign-invested enterprises were established in the first half of this year, up 96.6% year-on-year. According to the 2017 report of the World Bank, China ranked 78th in ease of doing business, up by 18 spots over 2013.

“We have the confidence, strength and conditions, and we have sufficient competence to counter uncertainties in the world economy with certainties from China’s economic resilience and sustainability,” said Yan Pengcheng, Spokesman for the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Years of economic transformation has turned China into an economy mainly driven by consumption, services and domestic demand instead of investment and exports, which will provide support for China’s future economic development, Yan said.