Kia ora
My favourite three robots in China? First I rode one, then I surfed one and finally someone put me on a robot horse. I certainly didn’t have ‘robot rides’ on my China AI tour bingo card! Last week, I had the privilege of joining a fact-finding mission to China, organised by the New Zealand China Council (NZCC) in association with AI Forum New Zealand and Tech New Zealand. And jokes aside, what we saw was serious: agentic AI, robotics and real-world deployment at scale, not polished demos, but working systems already in use.
We visited a wide mix of research institutes, major corporations, and fast-moving AI and robotics companies across Beijing, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai. The consistent theme was pace and the clear line of sight from research to rollout. It was also impossible to ignore what all of this sits on: data centres, compute and electricity. The more we saw, the more obvious it became that New Zealand needs to get serious about our own national data centre strategy.
I’ll share more practical takeaways over the coming weeks including where the opportunities are for Kiwi firms, what risks we need to be clear-eyed about, and what smart collaboration could look like across academia, government and industry. Big thanks to Summer Xia, Alistair Crozier and the New Zealand China Council for being superb hosts and to a great group of Kiwis on the trip: Benny Huang, Ming Cheuk, Ernestynne Walsh, Damon Kelly, Blake Harkness, Michael Murphy, Tammy Chee, Asya Ihanoa and Andrew Dentice.
DataCentres New Zealand launches manifesto
Our newest community, DataCentres New Zealand has launched its 2026 Election Manifesto: Empowering Aotearoa New Zealand’s Digital Future, setting out a policy agenda to help New Zealand seize a generational opportunity in trusted, sustainable data processing, storage and AI infrastructure. The manifesto positions data centres as the backbone of essential services and a platform for productivity growth, high-value jobs and a potential new export sector in low‑carbon digital services.
It highlights the sector’s growing scale — 56 data centres operating with another 20 planned — supporting $16.5b in ICT GDP and enabling a further $76.5b in knowledge‑intensive services, while backing 6,800 data centre-related jobs in 2025. With $10b in forecast investment over the next decade, the manifesto calls for coordinated action across six priorities including a National Data Centre Strategy, grid planning, public awareness, and promoting New Zealand globally as a trusted, sustainable hub for AI and cloud infrastructure.
View manifesto
AI Blueprint for Aotearoa: a refreshed vision to 2030
Our AI Forum’s refreshed AI Blueprint for Aotearoa sets a practical plan to help New Zealand become a global leader in innovative, responsible and inclusive AI by 2030.
This matters because AI adoption is accelerating, but trust hasn’t kept pace — and the next phase will be won by organisations that build capability, governance and social licence alongside innovation.
The blueprint outlines five strategic pillars: opportunity, capability, adoption & risk, talent, and global reach, plus two new workstreams: social licence (trust, transparency, literacy) and sustainable AI (sustainability, sovereignty and resilience).
View report
Turning local insight into wider impact
Agritech Unleashed continues: next up is Tauranga (25 August) and then Dunedin (12 November).
We’re helping unlock the full potential of New Zealand’s agritech sector through growth, efficiency and global reach.
Register now
Join Canterbury Tech’s 2026 Tech Summit on 17 September in Christchurch. Support Cyber Smart Week 2026.
Ngā mihi nui,
Graeme Muller
CEO, Tech New Zealand
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