Leading industries
Strategic sectors where Shanghai already has a deep research and manufacturing base.
Shanghai · Strategic emerging industries · 2026–2030
Shanghai’s Strategic Emerging Industries Plan
上海市战略性新兴产业发展“十五五”规划
A portfolio for moving research into production: three leading industries, twelve commercial growth tracks, ten frontier technologies, eight enabling services and six place-based clusters.
- 2030 value added
- ¥2.1tn
- Industrial output share
- >50%
- Pillar tracks
- 12
- Frontier technologies
- 10
The plan in plain English
Shanghai is building a layered technology portfolio
The plan separates industries by maturity and function. Integrated circuits, biopharma and AI provide strategic leadership; twelve tracks are expected to scale commercially; ten technologies receive longer-horizon bets; and eight service categories are meant to close the gap between laboratories, factories and markets.
Portfolio architecture
3 + 12 + 10 + 8, with place as a fifth layer
Pillar tracks
Commercial growth fields extending from terminals and software to aviation, energy and materials.
Frontier technologies
Longer-horizon options where multiple technical routes and demonstration applications remain open.
Enabling services
Research, translation, testing, IP, manufacturing, finance, data and creative services.
2030 scoreboard
Four official targets—and what their baselines mean
All four figures are described by the plan as expected targets rather than binding targets.
20252030Indicator and interpretation
Strategic emerging industry value added
A 50% increase from the 2025 baseline. That implies roughly 8.4% compound annual growth, an Urban China calculation rather than an official target.
Share of above-scale industrial output
Strategic emerging industries are expected to account for more than half of industrial output produced by enterprises above the official size threshold.
Annual manufacturing growth in the three leading industries
The 2030 column sets an annual average for integrated circuits, biopharmaceuticals and artificial intelligence.
Emerging services share of tertiary value added
The plan treats research, testing, finance, data and other services as part of the industrial system.
Strategic leadership
Three industries anchor the portfolio
Integrated circuits
Advanced chips and AI-assisted design; advanced packaging; new devices and architectures, including two-dimensional materials and 3D-stacked chips.
Biopharmaceuticals
High-clinical-value innovative drugs, AI-enabled discovery, intelligent medical devices, CRO and CDMO capability, and easier international commercial-insurance settlement for care.
Artificial intelligence
A chip-model-cloud ecosystem spanning foundation models and agents, AI for Science, embodied intelligence and intelligent-computing services.
Commercial growth portfolio
Twelve emerging pillar tracks
These are not broad labels alone. The plan names products, technical bottlenecks, infrastructure and applications for each track.
New intelligent terminals
On-device AI chips and models, next-generation displays, AI phones and PCs, smart glasses, biomimetic robots and wearables.
Blockchain
Industry chains for supply chains, green activity and finance, supported by trusted data services, interoperable infrastructure and standards.
Industrial software
AI agents for modelling, process planning and inspection; CAD/CAE engines, manufacturing execution, distributed control and digital twins.
Intelligent connected new-energy vehicles
Vehicle manufacturing, autonomous-driving models and training, solid-state batteries, vehicle data services and battery lifecycle management.
Intelligent robots
Sensors, joint modules and dexterous hands; end-to-end models; general-purpose products; standards and real-world, training and synthetic data.
Civil aviation
Scaled large-aircraft production, wide-body development, new-energy regional aircraft, airborne systems, certification and stronger final-assembly supply.
Commercial space and satellite internet
Reusable rockets, the Qianfan low-earth-orbit constellation, direct-to-device broadband, satellite factories, in-orbit services and space insurance.
Low-altitude economy
Advanced vertical-take-off aircraft and industrial drones, propulsion and flight-control components, routes, vertiports, safety and network infrastructure.
Ships and offshore engineering
High-value and green vessels, autonomous ships, cruise assembly, deep-sea and polar equipment, with AI and digital twins in design and production.
New energy storage and energy equipment
Solid-state, flow and sodium-ion batteries; compressed-air storage; offshore wind and solar; advanced nuclear, turbines and grid equipment.
High-end scientific instruments
Mass spectrometers, electron microscopes, sequencers and other systems, plus critical components, reagents and shared test-validation capacity.
Advanced materials
Electronic chemicals, high-temperature superconductors, advanced fibres and membranes, alloys and ceramics, supported by AI models for materials discovery.
Long-horizon options
Ten frontier technologies
The plan uses these fields to keep technical options open while pushing selected routes toward validation and use.
Quantum technology
Full-stack quantum computing, communications and precision measurement, with AI integration and demonstration applications.
Brain-computer interfaces
Invasive, semi-invasive and non-invasive systems, flexible neural electrodes and dedicated chips, with clinical validation, ethics and standards.
Fusion energy
Compact tokamaks as the main route, alongside laser fusion, stellarators and field-reversed configurations; AI for diagnosis, simulation and control.
6G
Integrated sensing, communications, computing and intelligence; agent communications; space-air-ground-sea networks; testing in manufacturing, health and mobility.
Brain-inspired intelligence
Neuromorphic chips, perception, algorithms and applications intended to operate reliably in real environments.
Optical computing
Interference and diffraction routes toward high-compute, low-power, low-latency photonic chips for cloud, edge and devices.
Fourth-generation semiconductors
Ultra-wide-bandgap materials such as gallium oxide, diamond and aluminium nitride, plus ultra-narrow-bandgap antimonides.
Biomanufacturing
Synthetic biology, engineered cells and enzymes, precision fermentation, biological component libraries and applications in materials, agriculture, food and cosmetics.
Cell and gene therapy
Targeted delivery, stem-cell differentiation and scaled cell production, including universal immune-cell therapies, in-vivo CAR-T and gene editing.
Green fuels
Integrated production, storage, refuelling and use of green hydrogen, ammonia and methanol, including electrolysers and new synthesis technologies.
The missing middle
Eight services that turn science into industry
R&D services
Open major research infrastructure and move from one-off technical services to end-to-end solutions.
Translation and incubation
Connect proof of concept, pilot-scale validation, technology transfer, university science parks and high-quality incubators.
Testing and certification
Build test capability for automotive chips, low-altitude aircraft, foundation models, agents and advanced materials.
Intellectual property
Specialist institutions, IP officers and AI-assisted public information services for patent creation and commercialisation.
New manufacturing services
Shared and flexible manufacturing plus system integrators that help smaller manufacturers upgrade.
Technology finance
Use Yangtze River Delta venture guidance funds and three leading-industry funds, alongside listing advice and technology credit.
Professional data
Scientific-data infrastructure, sector datasets and integrated data-intelligence-blockchain-computing services.
Digital creative services
Interactive design, digital content, digital-twin displays and immersive product launches.
Industrial geography
Six spatial systems, from Zhangjiang to the Yangtze River Delta
The plan assigns different functions to science campuses, manufacturing zones, inner-city innovation districts and regional corridors.
Innovation source
Zhangjiang
Integrated circuits and biopharma, with quantum, optical computing and cell and gene therapy; major science facilities and a proposed science-and-technology bonded zone.
Advanced manufacturing
Lingang
Integrated circuits, civil aviation and intelligent vehicles, with fusion and brain-computer interfaces; major facilities and an international data-economy park.
University translation
Zizhu–Grand NeoBay
University-industry research, proof-of-concept and incubation, backed by IP, data, manufacturing and finance services.
R&D economy
Riverfronts and middle ring
Fintech in Huangpu, green industry in Hongkou, brain-inspired intelligence in Yangpu, AI in Xuhui, blockchain in Jing’an, terminals in Changning and 6G in Jinqiao.
Manufacturing base
River, coast and outer suburbs
Robotics in Baoshan, shipbuilding in Waigaoqiao and Changxing, aviation in Zhuqiao, energy in Fengxian, materials and mobility in Jinshan, and multiple clusters in Jiading, Qingpu and Songjiang.
Regional coordination
Yangtze River Delta corridor
Cross-provincial R&D and clusters through the green integration demonstration zone, Xicen, the G60 corridor and the Shanghai–Nanjing innovation belt.
International reader’s lens
Six signals behind the sector lists
Portfolio, not one bet
Shanghai is spreading policy attention across mature strengths, commercialising technologies and longer-horizon frontier options rather than selecting a single flagship sector.
AI is horizontal infrastructure
AI appears in chip design, drug discovery, industrial software, vehicles, materials, fusion, scientific research and public testing—not only as a standalone industry.
Commercialisation is a policy layer
Proof-of-concept, pilot lines, testing, certification, data, IP, insurance and finance are treated as infrastructure between research and production.
Global interfaces remain specific
The plan mentions international talent, healthcare payment, green-shipping fuel services and globally competitive clusters, while the Yangtze River Delta supplies a wider production geography.
Rules develop with markets
BCI ethics, low-altitude routes and safety, AI and agent evaluation, aviation certification and space insurance show regulation being built alongside new products.
Investment access needs separate checks
The plan sets industrial direction but does not itself grant foreign market access, ownership rights, subsidies or procurement eligibility. Those depend on sector and programme rules.
Implementation tools
How Shanghai proposes to move the portfolio
Mission-based R&D
Open competitions and parallel “horse-race” projects, with milestone targets for major industrial and science missions.
Capital and procurement
Pilot converting grants into investment, refine public procurement and use municipal and regional industry funds.
Enterprise and talent
Cultivate potential industry leaders, open corporate data and platforms to smaller firms, recruit international talent and support one-person companies in specialist niches.
Industrial space
Mixed industrial land supply, long leases, lease-before-sale, equity contribution and reuse of idle state-owned factories.
Primary sources
Official text, visual guide and Chinese PDF
The full government webpage reproduces the approved plan and its four-indicator table.
Read the official plan ↗A Chinese-language visual summary published by the Shanghai Municipal Government General Office.
View the official guide ↗This English page is an editorial guide. The officially published Chinese text remains authoritative.
Download the Chinese PDF ↓