The Anhui International Talent Summit and Entrepreneurship Competition, hosted annually in Hefei, is the province’s flagship gathering for global high-level talent and capital. Organised by the Anhui Provincial Party Committee and People’s Government, the 2023 edition ran 19-20 October under the theme “Gathering Global Talents, Empowering Anhui’s Rise”. The two-day programme blended an opening ceremony, thematic forums, road-show finals, closed-door negotiations, and site tours, attracting more than 1,200 participants: academicians, national high-level overseas talent plan winners, heads of Fortune 500 R&D centres, partner funds, incubators, and technology parks. Plenary speeches were delivered by Governor Wang Qingxian, Chinese Academy of Engineering president Li Xiaohua, and Nobel laureate in chemistry Arieh Warshel, who outlined how top-tier brains can plug into Anhui’s quantum information, new-energy vehicles, and advanced manufacturing clusters. Parallel forums on quantum science, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, new materials, and green energy showcased provincial laboratories and “no-wait” policy support: fast-track permanent residence, up to 100 million RMB in research subsidies, and rent-free incubation space. The entrepreneurship competition, the event’s core, selected 100 finalists from 1,156 overseas entries; 24 projects secured on-the-spot investment intention totalling 1.86 billion RMB. A “Talent-Enterprise Matchmaking Fair” seated 300 PhDs with 150 local companies, resulting in 87 signed contracts. Hybrid attendance was supported through simultaneous interpretation and live-streaming that drew 2.3 million online views. The summit also witnessed the release of the Anhui Overseas Talent Service Card 2.0, offering medical green channels, children’s schooling, and tax benefits. Organisers declared the conference a permanent fixture, vowing to enlarge the finals, add an international venture capital week, and build a year-round digital platform for project tracking. Media praised the meeting as “Anhui’s most influential talent brand”, crediting it with accelerating the province’s rise to sixth in the national GDP rankings.