The national government has set the tone: a regional industry reshuffle has begun.

The Six Major Future Industries—Who’s Pushing Through Faster?

On March 20, Suzhou, which was dubbed the “strongest prefecture-level city,” announced at the Suzhou Businessmen Conference the ten key emerging industries and ten key future industries it will focus on in the next phase, sending a clear signal about concentrating advantages to open up new tracks.

Not long ago, the national “15th Five-Year Plan” outline explicitly stated that it should target key future development focus areas, build a whole-chain cultivation system for future industries, and foster quantum technology, bio-manufacturing, hydrogen energy and nuclear fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces, embodied intelligence, 6G (the sixth-generation mobile communications), and others as new economic growth drivers.

Since the government first raised the concept of “future industries” in 2024, the government work report has also continued to highlight and deploy them for three consecutive years. The latest phrasing of “building a whole-chain cultivation system for future industries” indicates that these highly disruptive industries have entered a brand-new stage.

As Zheng Shanjie, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said, these industries are on the “eve of technological breakthroughs.” For now, today’s future industries may well be tomorrow’s new pillar industries.

With unprecedented opportunities, for local governments the question of whether they can quickly find the right positioning in this new round of industrial competition and build a leading advantage will determine their future fate. Looking at the regional map of the six future industry tracks, who is accelerating their breakthrough?

01

“Blooming Everywhere” Type

Representative industry: Embodied Intelligence

Among the six future industries prioritized at the national level, embodied intelligence is undoubtedly the hottest track right now. According to incomplete statistics, at least 21 provinces nationwide have mentioned the keywords “embodied intelligence” or “robots” in their 2026 government work reports, becoming industries that localities are rushing to develop.

Meanwhile, all 31 provinces nationwide have, without exception, made arrangements for areas related to artificial intelligence and intelligent economy, hoping to secure the early advantage in the next round of competition.

This “blooming everywhere” pattern also reflects, from the side, the distinctive attributes of the embodied intelligence industry: a long industrial chain, diversified technological routes, and broad application scenarios. Localities’ multi-path exploration around embodied intelligence is also accelerating.

2025 is known in the industry as the “mass production year” for humanoid robots. A recent report by globally known technology research firm Omdia shows that Chinese humanoid robot manufacturers are leading globally. The top six in overall shipments in 2025 are all from China, with Shanghai’s Unitree and Fourier ranking among the global top ten.

In the industry’s view, Shanghai is the “easiest and fastest” city in China for mass-producing embodied intelligence.

According to estimates, the core components required for humanoid robots, as well as the invisible data and control algorithms, can all be procured and assembled with 100% coverage within a straight-line radius of 150 kilometers centered on Shanghai. The leading hardware supply chain of the Yangtze River Delta, Shanghai’s long-standing accumulation in the artificial intelligence industry base and talent advantages—all together have pressed the “fast-forward” button for accelerating mass production of embodied intelligence under the “Shanghai card.”

On top of this, Shanghai has further proposed implementing the “Artificial Intelligence+” initiative in depth, strengthening the layout and construction of computing power infrastructure, industry corpora, and vertical models, and promoting broad use of next-generation intelligent terminals, intelligent agents, and more. Looking across the country, embodied intelligence is at a key moment shifting from technical validation to commercial deployment—when the flexibility of the platform body has reached a practical stage, what matters next is whose “work” capability is stronger.

At this year’s Guangdong “First Meeting of the New Year,” Guangdong Party Secretary Huang Qunming emphasized the need to “put embodied intelligence into use,” releasing a clear signal. Before that, the “Action Plan for High-Quality Development of Manufacturing Empowered by Artificial Intelligence in Guangdong Province (2025–2027)” had already clearly proposed accelerating the building of a demonstration zone for integrated development of “Artificial Intelligence + Manufacturing” with global influence.

It is not hard to see that, as a major manufacturing province nationwide, Guangdong has focused on application demonstrations and promotion—manufacturing scale accounts for about 1/8 of the country, it has all 31 manufacturing industry categories, and it also boasts 10 trillion-level industry clusters such as next-generation electronic information, providing it with abundant “test fields.”

Judging from the government work reports, in many places, statements about embodied intelligence are still at the “planning” or “cultivation” stage, while some provinces represented by Guangdong have already targeted more finely segmented tracks. For example, Guangdong has mentioned “accelerating high-level applications across the full domain, full time, and full industry of artificial intelligence,” cultivating a batch of vertical large models and scenario-specific small models, and speeding up the construction of industrial innovation platforms such as embodied intelligence training grounds.

In addition, Shandong’s government work report also proposes “building a training-ground system for embodied intelligent robots,” while Zhejiang has clearly stated it will actively create national AI application pilot-and-demo bases for embodied intelligence and related areas.

Beijing, meanwhile, has turned its attention to scenario openness. According to the “Action Plan for Science and Technology Innovation and Industrial Cultivation of Embodied Intelligence (2025–2027)” recently issued by Beijing, it will open up application scenarios such as scientific research and education, automobile production, and commercial retail in batches. It will prioritize pushing for the scaled deployment of 10,000 embodied robots, cultivate 100-billion-yuan-level industry clusters, and also prospectively explore application solutions for people’s livelihood scenarios such as elderly care and household services.

02

Characteristic Breakthrough Type

Representative industries: Bio-Manufacturing, Hydrogen Energy

It must be pointed out that the incubation and cultivation cycle for future industries is long, the risks are high, and uncertainty is strong. Therefore, development needs to be tailored to local conditions and planned rationally.

From another perspective, future industries are not exclusive competition arenas only for a few economically strong provinces. Other regions can also rely on their industrial endowments to achieve characteristic breakthroughs.

For example, leveraging advantages such as abundant agricultural raw material resources, Heilongjiang has become an important part of the bio-manufacturing sector in China. In 2024, the Suiha Daqi bio-manufacturing cluster officially joined the “national team,” becoming the only national-level advanced manufacturing industry cluster in the bio-manufacturing field.

Data show that during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the number of backbone enterprises in Heilongjiang’s bio-manufacturing sector grew from fewer than 80 to 194. Output value exceeded 1 trillion yuan, with an annual average growth rate of more than 10%. According to Heilongjiang’s government work report, this year will accelerate the development of the bioeconomy, carry out a new round of the bioeconomy “double hundred project,” and keep the revenue growth rate of key bioeconomy industries at more than 10% year-on-year.

Also within bio-manufacturing, multiple provinces such as Chongqing, Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia have been ramping up and laying out their efforts. Among them, Chongqing’s government work report proposed “establishing the Chongqing Bio-Manufacturing Research Institute, and supporting the development of the innovative drug ecology circle of Chongqing International Bio-City.” Yunnan targets “cultivating bio-manufacturing industrial parks,” while Hainan highlights “ocean bio-manufacturing.”

Another future industry with strong prospects thanks to regional resource endowments is hydrogen energy.

As early as in the “14th Five-Year Plan” outline, hydrogen energy was included in forward-looking planning for future industries. According to statistics, at least 23 provinces have clearly mentioned this industry in their 2026 government work reports, and more than 20 provinces have already specified medium- and long-term hydrogen energy plans for the next 5 to 10 years.

Unlike fossil energy, hydrogen cannot be extracted directly. Instead, it needs to be produced from water or fossil fuels—i.e., it is a “secondary energy source.” This feature determines the importance of resource endowments for the layout of the hydrogen energy industry.

Among many provinces, Jilin has devoted the most attention in this year’s government work report.

It mentioned that in 2025, a batch of “green power + hydrogen + ammonia + methanol” flagship projects such as China Energy Construction Group’s Songyuan will be completed and begin production, with total production capacity leading nationwide; Changchun, Songyuan, and Baicheng were selected as the first batch of hydrogen energy regional pilot zones under the national energy sector; and the country’s first hydrogen energy cultural and tourism train successfully entered operation.

Recently, Jilin Party Secretary Huang Qiang also specifically took the hydrogen energy train for a trial ride during an investigation and said it should “let hydrogen energy city-to-city trains gallop across Jilin.”

As one of China’s nine wind and solar power bases with capacity in the tens of millions of kilowatts, Jilin has abundant green electricity resources. At the same time, its old industrial base provides support for developing the full industrial chain: companies such as FAW and CRRC Changke have been deeply involved in hydrogen energy equipment manufacturing, and the densely packed chemical industry cluster within the province naturally forms a green hydrogen absorption market. These advantages are also the confidence behind Jilin aiming at the “Northern Hydrogen Valley.”

It is worth noting that on March 16, three departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the “Notice on Carrying Out Pilot Projects for Comprehensive Hydrogen Energy Applications,” opening up even greater space for industry development. Experts have analyzed that its biggest highlight is opening up a “new track” for the hydrogen energy industry—shifting from previously mainly being applied in fuel-cell vehicle fields to clearly expanding into industrial sectors such as steel, chemical engineering, and shipping. This marks a new stage for industrial development: moving from a “single-transportation demonstration” model into “a full-scenario push for large-scale, commercialization-focused breakthroughs.”

In response, some provinces have already deployed plans. For instance, Inner Mongolia specifically mentioned in its government work report “strengthening the coupled application of green hydrogen with metallurgy, chemical engineering, and synthetic biology,” while Gansu is focusing on project construction for hydrogen energy equipment, proposing to create a batch of landmark application scenarios.

03

Head-End Leading Type

Representative industries: Quantum Technology, Nuclear Fusion Energy, 6G, Brain-Computer Interfaces

By contrast, future industries such as quantum technology, nuclear fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces, and 6G—due to their extremely high technical barriers and talent thresholds—are still limited to competition among a small number of “top players.”

In the field of quantum technology, Anhui is the absolute leader. The “2024 Global Future Industry Development Index Report” shows that the quantum industry ranking of Hefei, Anhui is number two globally, second only to San Francisco, the United States. Among the top 20 global quantum enterprises, four are from China, and three of them are from Anhui. By the end of 2025, Anhui’s quantum industry-chain enterprises had already exceeded 100, with the number of enterprises ranking first nationwide.

At present, the global quantum industry’s commercialization has entered a “speed-racing sprint” stage. According to Anhui’s latest deployment, in 2026 it will build quantum computing research and development platforms, implement the “quantum information—1,000 household scenarios” action in depth, and accelerate the transformation of quantum technology applications.

In the nuclear fusion energy sector, however, when reviewing local 2026 government work reports, only the three provinces of Anhui, Hubei, and Sichuan explicitly list nuclear fusion energy as a key development direction.

This is closely related to the core innovative resources in those regions: Anhui relies on technology accumulation from research institutions such as the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Sichuan has a strong nuclear industry foundation and core strengths such as the Southwest Physics Institute of Nuclear Industry; while Hubei is supported by the Huazhong University of Science and Technology’s J-TEXT device and strengths in top disciplines.

In addition, as Shanghai is also known as the “cradle of China’s nuclear power industry,” it continues to add weight through capital linkages. Shanghai’s future industry fund has invested in Starring Jureneng, Dongsheng Fusion, Yixi Technology, and China Nuclear Fusion Energy Co., Ltd., among others, initially forming a relatively complete nuclear fusion industry chain with diverse technological routes.

The clustering effect is equally significant in the 6G industry. Judging from the 2026 government work reports, only Beijing, Shanghai, and Jiangsu explicitly mention the 6G industry, and all have already achieved landmark results. Beijing’s 6G small-scale experimental network was built first; Shanghai drafted and implemented a plan for cultivating future industries in 6G; and Jiangsu successfully built the world’s first 6G outdoor field test network.

Looking ahead to the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, provinces including Guangdong, Anhui, Hubei, Sichuan, and Heilongjiang have also already released signals of their layouts. Regional competition along the 6G track is continuously spreading.

In addition, in the brain-computer interface field, judging from industrial-chain layout, key enterprises mainly cluster in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai region. Leading companies such as Borekang, Brain Tiger Technology, Shennian Technology, and Qiangnao Technology are all rooted there. In places such as Beijing, Tianjin, Guangdong, Shaanxi, Hubei, and Sichuan, they also gather a group of brain-computer interface-related enterprises by drawing on scientific research strength.

More provinces are also eager to try: Chongqing, Shandong, Shanxi, Jiangxi, Heilongjiang, Hainan, and others have all laid out brain-computer interfaces in 2026, aiming to secure a position on the new track. This industrial speed race—poised to rewrite the regional industrial landscape—has only just begun.

(Disclaimer: The contents and data in this article are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice. Please verify before using. Any risks arising from actions taken on the basis of this information shall be borne by the person taking those actions.)

By | Cheng Xiaoling Liu Xuqiang

Edited** | Duan Lian Liu Yanmei Yi Qijiang**

Proofread** | Zhang Yiming**

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