The model enables safe, high-quality, efficient and green tunnel construction, promoting the sector’s intelligent and digital transformation and upgrading.

The model is based on a big data center for shield tunnel boring machine engineering, which stores information from 773 engineering projects and 120 billion construction records, Xinhua reported, citing a head of the laboratory’s research and development team. A general large model coordinates multiple smaller models to create a specialized vertical large-model technology system, the report said.

The model has already been applied in projects including the plateau railway tunnels, the Chongming-Taicang Yangtze River Tunnel, which links Shanghai’s Chongming district and Taicang in East China’s Jiangsu Province, and the Pearl River Estuary Tunnel of the Shenzhen-Jiangmen High Speed Railway, a key project within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

The model helps make tunnel construction safer, higher-quality, more efficient and environmentally friendly, while driving the industry’s shift toward smarter and more digital operations, the report said.

The launch of the large model came just two months after China’s first vertical large model for transport infrastructure, named Lingzhu, was unveiled in Chengdu, capital city of Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, in June, according to media reports.

China has so far released 1,509 large models, ranking first among the 3,755 large models released worldwide. The country’s development of artificial intelligence technology and its industrial applications is expected to see new breakthroughs, Xinhua reported on July 27.

According to a report released by Frost & Sullivan, a global market research and consulting firm, the market size of China’s vertical large-model industry was projected to grow from 25.4 billion yuan ($3.54 billion) in 2025 to 62.4 billion yuan in 2028, with an annual growth rate of 50 percent.