Witnessing the Power of Innovation: Second Digiloong Cup Global AI Innovation Competition Recognizes 14 Winners Across Six Award Categories
Shanghai, Aug. 04, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Witnessing the power of innovation and building the AI ecosystem together,
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Shanghai, Aug. 04, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Witnessing the power of innovation and building the AI ecosystem together, the second Digiloong Cup Global AI Innovation Competition concluded successfully on July 31 with an awards ceremony that named 14 winning teams across six award categories. Century Huatong launched the competition with support from the Game Publishing Committee of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association (CADPA), the Publicity Department of the CPC Pudong New Area Committee (Pudong New Area Bureau of Culture, Sports and Tourism), the Shanghai Cultural and Creative Industry Promotion Association, the Shanghai Online Game Association and the Macao-Hengqin Cultural and Technology Industry Association. Media and platform partners included ChinaJoy, Cailian Press, Tide News, 36Kr, ModelScope and Shanghai Pudong Software Park. The ceremony brought together representatives of government authorities, industry associations, investment institutions, mainstream media, and the award-winning teams. More than 100 guests gathered at the venue to witness a proud moment of recognition for young AI innovation teams.
AI Enters the Second Half of Application-Led Transformation
Wang Ji, Chairman of Century Huatong and initiator of the competition, said in his address that the scale of participation had nearly doubled this year, reflecting three encouraging changes in the AI innovation ecosystem: First, teams were taking a more practical approach to the technology, increasingly framing their work around the specific problem, “What specific problem have I solved with AI?” Second, commercial awareness had strengthened significantly: many teams had moved beyond the demo stage and arrived with real revenue figures and a defined business model. Third, AI applications accounted for more than 70% of entries, making them the dominant category by a wide margin. “The first half of technological breakthroughs is drawing to a close, and the second half of application-led transformation has arrived,” Wang said. He added that the purpose of the Digiloong Cup is “to discover the people who can bring AI into real-world use and help them move from ideas to products and from the laboratories to the market.
Ao Ran, Executive Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of CADPA, said that as AI technology becomes more widely adopted, its role as an innovation tool and creative assistant is becoming increasingly prominent. The technology provides strong support for developers seeking new forms of creation and greater efficiency in content production, he said, and it has drawn a wave of new teams and new creators into the field. The outstanding projects emerging from this year’s Digiloong Cup offer a vivid illustration of this trend, he said. Ao set out three expectations for developers: remain guided by sound values, continue strengthening their capabilities, and pursue integrated development.
An official of Macao’s Commerce and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM), an event partner, attended to discuss cooperation between Shanghai and Macao. The representative said that Macao’s unique practice of “one country, two systems” offers favorable conditions for companies seeking global expansion. Together with the free flow of capital and information in Macao, this can provide companies with greater flexibility as they develop their operations there.
14 Teams Honored Across Six Award Categories
The second Digiloong Cup opened April 2 and ran for nearly four months, registering more than 200 entrants and receiving close to 100 submissions. On July 22, 15 finalist teams gathered in Shanghai for in-depth, face-to-face final presentations and Q&A to 10 judges from industry associations, leading companies, universities and research institutes, investment institutions, and major media organizations.
Fourteen teams won awards in six categories: Best AI Game, Best AI Application, Award for Greatest Commercial Value, Best Newcomer, Best AI Agent Innovation and Best International Team.
Best AI Application went to SDODT’s AI Galaxy, a brain-function rehabilitation platform built on AI and brain-computer interface technology that provides cognitive, social and language training for people with neurodevelopmental and cognitive disorders. Nomination Awards went to the Fisher intelligent drug research and development platform and an industrial-grade 3D optical motion-capture system for film, animation and game production.
SenBox, from SENGINE Technology, won the Award for Greatest Commercial Value for its techlogical innovation and commercialization potential in AI-driven home simulation games. Nomination Awards went to FilmAction, an end-to-end AI film production platform from Haoye Technology, and AutoBIM for AutoPart from biMetaverse.
Best AI Agent Innovation, a new award category this year, went to Tripilot for an agent built for foreign travelers visiting China. NeuroGuard, from Fast-Slow Brain Lab, received a Nomination Award.
In the AI game category, Best AI Game went to Zhongyingyou’s The Red-Topped Merchant, a 600-minute interactive AI film-game whose story, characters, video and audio were created entirely with AI tools through an end-to-end production process. SenBox from SENGINE Technology and Meow Island from Miaojituo Studio received Nomination Awards.
Best Newcomer went to Fundamuse, a platform that uses multiple AI agents to handle artist management for independent musicians, covering everything from release to revenue. Nomination Awards went to Youyu Intelligence from Team Youyu, an ecosystem app that uses AI to identify and share fishing spots, and an AI design assistant for industrial software from Shanghai Huitu Weilai.
Moonspire, a Canadian team, won the Best International Team for Speechbound, an AI-powered language-learning platform. Moonspire was also the first overseas team to participate in this year’s Digiloong Cup, contributing high-quality international innovation to the competition.
An End-to-End Ecosystem: From Making the Technology Work to Making the Business Work
In addition to its formal competition schedule, the second Digiloong Cup held a series of in-person events: the developer salon in Hangzhou in April, the venture capital showcase in Shanghai in May, an investor summit in Macao in June, and the final pitch presentations and awards ceremony in Jult. Covering technical exchange, investor matchmaking and industry support, these events gradually built an AI ecosystem spanning the full chain of competition, incubation, capital and industry.
The ceremony also included two panel discussions. The first, “The Deep End of AI Deployment: From Technical Breakthrough to Commercial Viability,” brought together SDODT, Haoye Technology and Tripilot. Working in different markets, the three teams addressed a key industry question: whether the window for AI applications is closing as foundation model providers build agent capabilities into their own products.
The second panel, “From Demo to Product: How Many Hurdles Are Left?” featured SENGINE Technology, Zhongyingyou and Yuanzai World. The teams walked through the path from proof of concept to product launch for AI-native games and discussed key challenges including cost structures, content ecosystems and the barriers for creators.
As Wang Ji put it, “While a competition has winners and losers, innovation has no finish line.”
The first two editions are only a starting point. The Digiloong Cup is growing into an important platform that connects AI developers worldwide, reaching from Hangzhou and Shanghai to Macao and overseas. For the third edition and those that follow, Century Huatong will adopt a more open approach and build a more comprehensive ecosystem, helping every entrepreneur who believes in technology’s power to drive change go further.
li xiaorang lixiaorang.lois@digiloong.com
