KubeCon China – Open Source a '$9 trillion' asset, says Linux Foundation's Zemlin. But what about AI?

KubeCon + CloudNativeCon is always a lively event – and KubeCon China doubly so. This year, the joint conference moved over the water from the Kowloon side of Hong Kong to the center of the city itself, and into a brand-new five-star hotel and conference center on the edge of its highest point: Victoria Peak (aka The Peak).

The perfect metaphor for Open Source's ascension in software development? And for China's relentless rise to be the world's number two economy and second largest contributor to the Open Source community? Perhaps. But a key question was conspicuous by its absence. More on that later.

Either way, the buzzy event has presented its characteristic mix of enthusiastic young developers, high-level themes, and technical 'lightning talks' on a diverse mix of subjects, including Large Language Models (LLMs) and robotics. That said, it is a more emphatically Chinese affair than last year's ...