AI Policy and Chinese Enterprise Internationalization: A Triple-Logic Framework of Capability Building, Cost Restructuring, and Resilience Enhancement

Artificial intelligence (AI), as the core driving force of a new round of technological revolution, has increasingly become an important policy and technological support for promoting corporate internationalization strategies. This paper takes Chinese A-share listed companies from 2013 to 2023 as samples, uses a multiperiod difference-in-differences (DID) model, and investigates the impact and mechanism of the policy of artificial intelligence innovative application pilot zones on corporate outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). The study revealedthat AI policy significantly promotes the implementation of the corporate "going global" strategy, increasing the average scale of corporate foreign investment by approximately 6.5%. Mechanism tests further show that AI policy promotes corporate OFDI through three paths: capability building, cost reshaping, and resilience enhancement. The policy effect shows significant differences across different ownership types, technology levels, and industries: state-owned enterprises benefit more than nonstate-owned enterprises do, reflecting differences in institutional advantages and resource acquisition capabilities; nonhigh-tech enterprises are more sensitive to the policy, indicating that external policies have more obvious marginal incentives for enterprises with weak technological foundations; and labor-intensive and capital-intensive industries also show a more prominent policy response, indicating that they are the core force driving internationalization through digitalization. Therefore, the formulation and practice of future AI policies should integrate regional conditions, enterprise types, and industrial characteristics; implement differentiated policy tools; and fully stimulate the endogenous motivation and strategic potential of corporate internationalization.