August 17, 2026, (Inside AI) — A bar in Beijing’s Zhongguancun tech hub is serving free DeepSeek tokens with every pint, turning a neighborhood watering hole into an unlikely gathering spot for China’s AI developers, investors, and students.
Song De, an independent AI developer in his thirties, opened AGI Bar last year in Haidian district, naming it after artificial general intelligence. The bar sits on Inno Way startup street, a stone’s throw from Tsinghua University, Peking University, and offices of DeepSeek and Microsoft.
The signature drink, also called AGI, costs 9.9 yuan ($1.50). Customers who connect to the bar’s AI agent via WiFi get free unlimited DeepSeek tokens for coding, powered by two Nvidia DGX Spark computers on display.
“We say AI is a future public utility like water, electricity, and the internet. AI should be like WiFi,” Song De, owner, AGI Bar
The bar’s registered Chinese name means “knowledge distillation,” a pun on liquor distillation and the AI technique of transferring knowledge from large models to small ones.
“First off, it’s an AI technical term for transferring knowledge from large models to small ones, but between humans in a bar, that’s also a form of knowledge distillation,” Song De, owner, AGI Bar
Song has automated inventory, reservations, utilities, and membership systems using an AI agent. He plans to expand the Beijing floor space this year and deploy humanoid robots to serve drinks. A Shanghai branch opened in June.
“We’ve hooked up all our lighting, software, and hardware in the store to APIs for AI processing. We’re trying not to waste human labour on tedious, unnecessary operational tasks,” Song De, owner, AGI Bar
Despite the buzz, the bar is unprofitable. “The bar is completely losing money,” Song said. “The amount of drinks given away is definitely 10 times more than what’s sold.”
The bar has hosted parties for Chinese AI labs including Z.ai, whose brass gong from its Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing in January stands outside the entrance. It also runs developer seminars, open-source AI symposiums, and university research meetups.
“You’ll see people sitting around a table coming from different labs, competing companies, and different universities, all chatting about industry trends right here,” Song De, owner, AGI Bar
Song sees the location as strategic. “This is a very unique and advantageous location,” he said. “Haidian (district) has always been the heart of scientific research in China. Internet companies are clustered here, and the tech atmosphere, industry investments, and VC incubators provide massive momentum for the sector.”
The bar reflects China’s broader push to become a high-tech powerhouse, with AI agents adopted by retirees and coding education mainstreamed for primary school children. Universities have added AI to curriculums, and some job disruption has already occurred.
Like many Chinese open-weight models that undercut U.S. proprietary AI on cost, Song’s venture runs at a loss. But he believes the discovery of AI is more important than the Industrial Revolution, and he is betting that free tokens and free drinks will build a community that eventually pays off.
