According to IDC, the AI cybersecurity market in China is expected to reach $8.7 billion by 2030, representing a rise of over 37 times compared to 2025.
As prominent US artificial intelligence companies like Anthropic and OpenAI introduce advanced models with improved cybersecurity features, China is similarly intensifying its efforts to expand its AI-powered cyber defense sector.
Anthropic’s Mythos, introduced in April, triggered a swift worldwide reaction because of its capacity to identify and take advantage of cybersecurity weaknesses at an extraordinary pace and effectiveness.
Our evaluation indicates that China’s own Mythos will certainly arise, although the current overall capabilities of its cybersecurity models are still far behind those of Mythos,” said Austin Zhao, senior research manager at IDC China. “However, the overall trend is unavoidable since the capabilities of China’s models are also growing rapidly.
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According to IDC, the AI cybersecurity market in China is expected to reach 59.35 billion yuan (US$8.7 billion) by 2030, representing a rise of over 37 times compared to 1.58 billion yuan in 2025.
The expansion is being fueled by local cybersecurity companies integrating AI into their services, a move that Zhao noted was already making a “substantial difference” in the sector.
“Most vendors are already implementing AI, with some obtaining positive outcomes in specific areas like security operations, data protection, threat identification, and intelligence analysis,” he stated.
Core AI models have significant consequences for cybersecurity due to their strong “dual use” programming abilities, indicating they can identify and take advantage of weaknesses in software systems.
On Thursday, Mozilla’s engineers explained how Mythos contributed to resolving 423 security vulnerabilities in their main Firefox web browser during the previous month, marking a significant rise from the usual number of just a few dozen per month.
These extraordinary abilities have led to worries that conventional cybersecurity providers might be superseded by firms specializing in AI models. Nevertheless, Chinese cybersecurity companies have demonstrated a solid history of incorporating AI developments to enhance their products, according to Zhao.
“In 2010, during the initial rise of AI-driven cybersecurity, multiple Chinese companies made significant early investments, allowing them to adjust rapidly,” he mentioned.
Nevertheless, there is doubt about whether Chinese suppliers can match the progress of their American counterparts. As AI was altering the global dynamics between cyber attackers and defenders, Zhao mentioned that China found itself at a disadvantage due to exclusion from the most recent US technological developments, noting that Anthropic has prohibited Chinese vendors from utilizing Mythos to address security flaws.
Anthropic rival OpenAIhas also adopted a more aggressive position, stating on Thursday that its newest GPT-5.5 model, featuring improved security features, will first be made available exclusively to top US cybersecurity companies such as Cisco, CrowdStrike, and Cloudflare.
“How Chinese suppliers can overcome this challenge has turned into the most urgent problem,” Zhao stated. He mentioned that the disparity in high-stakes fields like “zero-day” vulnerability identification – where cybersecurity professionals have “zero days” to address issues before they are attacked – might increase between the US and China in the near future.
China must combine its collective efforts, as tackling these industry shifts alone will not be enough,” Zhao stated. “Cybersecurity providers will have to actively work together with AI firms and trade organizations.
In the meantime, the demand for AI security solutions in China is expected to experience significant growth, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 50.5 percent over the next five years, as reported by IDC.
Although cybersecurity solutions enhanced by artificial intelligence utilize AI to identify and fix weaknesses, AI security tools are created to safeguard AI systems directly.
This more recent area, which involves tools like AI model security evaluations and agent-based AI threat identification, has become increasingly vital as autonomous AI systems become more widespread, increasing the likelihood that weaknesses might lead to substantial financial damages.
Growing worries about autonomous AI have taken center stage for regulators in recent months, according to Barbara Li, a partner based in Shanghai at Reed Smith, who focuses on cybersecurity, as various regulatory bodies are developing guidelines on how businesses should implement AI agents responsibly.
According to IDC, China’s AI security market is expected to grow to 34.03 billion yuan by 2030, representing an increase of more than sevenfold compared to 4.41 billion yuan in the previous year. “We are observing significant market interest in several areas, such as assessing the security of code produced by AI agents,” mentioned Zhao.
Amid significant uncertainty regarding AI’s future and its rapid evolution, Beijing has aimed to encourage flexible regulation by fostering close cooperation between the private sector and government officials, a system that some specialists refer to as “collaborative governance.”
On Friday, three top regulatory agencies in China — the Cyberspace Administration of China, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) — jointly introduced the nation’s first significant policy framework focused exclusively on AI agents, highlighting the significance of advancing “security technologies” including encryption protections and methods for identifying cyberattacks.
This occurred one day following the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a research organization under MIIT, revealing a new partnership involving major technology companies like Huawei Technologies and Tencent Holdings, along with entities such as the Chinese University of Hong Kong, aimed at advancing open-source standards to enhance the verification and auditing of AI agent activities.
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This piece was first published on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), a top news outlet covering China and Asia.
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