China Academy of Information and Communications Technology Releases "Cloud Computing Blue Book (2025)"

As a key infrastructure in the era of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing serves as an essential foundation for AI to deeply empower the real economy. It is also a crucial driver for accelerating the formation of new quality productive forces and advancing China’s digital economy into a new stage of development. Over the past year, breakthroughs have been made in large AI models represented by DeepSeek, ushering in the development of consumer-facing "AI +" applications. The inclusive, user-friendly, and integrated intelligent computing capabilities have infused new vitality into cloud computing, accelerating global cloud strategic layout and industrial intelligence. The industry presents the following new characteristics:

1. Countries Accelerate Cloud Computing Strategies to Consolidate Core Competitiveness in the AI Era
The United States is actively advancing its "cloud intelligence" strategy to vigorously promote the deep integration of cloud computing and AI technologies. The European Union has updated its strategic deployment to drive the construction of cloud computing infrastructure, aiming to accelerate the improvement of national technological competitiveness. Countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America continue to increase investment in cloud computing to enhance cloud technology and application levels, narrowing the development gap with advanced countries. China has continuously strengthened policy guidance to promote the integrated development of cloud computing technologies and the deepening of industry applications, supporting the intelligent transformation and upgrading of industries.

2. Consumer-Facing AI Applications Activate the Global Cloud Computing Market, with China’s Cloud Computing Industry Demonstrating Strong Resilience
In 2024, the global cloud computing market size reached 692.9 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 20.2%. In the next few years, the deep penetration of AI into the whole society will bring sustained demand to the cloud computing industry, and the global market size is expected to approach 2 trillion US dollars by 2030. In 2024, China’s cloud computing market size reached 828.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34.4%, maintaining a high growth rate. A digital and intelligent market pattern based on cloud computing has taken shape. With the integrated innovation of quantum computing, blockchain, AI, and cloud computing, the boundaries of cloud computing will be further expanded, and China’s cloud computing market size is expected to exceed 3 trillion yuan by 2030.

3. Cloud Computing Drives Innovation in AI Service Paradigms, Stimulating New Quality Productive Forces in the AI Era
With the continuous innovation of AI technologies, AI has begun to penetrate all walks of life, from work scenarios to daily life. The society’s demand for inclusive, scenario-based, and ecological computing power has become increasingly prominent. In response to the new needs of the AI era, cloud computing service models are accelerating their transformation towards "AI +", showing an evolutionary trend across the entire industrial chain such as AIIaaS, AIPaaS, MaaS, AISaaS, and AIMSP. These models collaboratively promote the full-link transformation of AI technology from infrastructure to commercial value, forming a new quality productive force paradigm in the AI era.

Since 2012, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) has continuously tracked the development trend of cloud computing. This blue book is the 11th cloud computing-related research achievement released by CAICT since the "Cloud Computing White Paper (2012)". Based on the new developments, changes, and needs of the industry, this blue book focuses on the key points of global cloud computing development in the AI era. It uses an original analytical framework to deeply explain the cloud computing policy environment, market development, and technical hotspots, and predicts future trends such as cloud-intelligence integration and full-stack innovation from a forward-looking perspective. It provides references for government decision-making, industrial upgrading, and technological breakthroughs.

Click the book title on the right to download the blue book: Cloud Computing Blue Book (2025).pdf