Nine departments release the IoT industry innovation development plan, aiming for the core industry scale to surpass 3.5 trillion yuan by 2028.

Nine departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have jointly issued the “Action Plan for Promoting Innovative Development of the Internet of Things Industry (2026–2028)” (hereinafter referred to as the “Plan”), which states that by 2028, the core IoT industry scale will exceed 3.5 trillion yuan, the number of terminal connections will be targeted to reach the hundred-million-level, and 10 billion-level and 15 million-level connection application areas will be fostered.

Building a new industry landscape around five major tasks

Centered on five core tasks—device innovation, platform effectiveness, application scenarios, network infrastructure, and an industrial ecosystem—the Plan provides a systematic deployment of an industry upgrading roadmap.

In terms of device innovation, it calls for accelerating R&D in technologies such as non-powered (battery-less) IoT, multimodal sensing, and high-precision positioning, and improving the level of independent innovation in mid- to high-end sensors such as micro-/nano-displacement sensors, flexible tactile sensors, and high-resolution visual sensors. In application terminals, it aims to accelerate the integration of technologies such as artificial intelligence, 5G, and human-computer interaction with IoT terminals, speed up large-scale IPv6 deployment, and promote newly added industry application terminals to support and enable IPv6 by default. At the network layer, it will build a mobile IoT system with a high/low mix of 4G/5G, advance the application of technologies such as satellite IoT and deterministic networking, and meet requirements for massive connections, low latency, and low power consumption.

A relevant official from the Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that when it comes to IoT, achieving intelligent ubiquitous connections among people, machines, and things will bridge the digital and physical worlds. In recent years, this has become a core force driving the industrial digitization and intelligence process. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, China’s IoT industry has continued to expand in scale and its standard system has been continuously improved, but it still faces challenges such as shortfalls in key core technologies, insufficient device interconnection and interoperability, and increasingly prominent security risks. The release of this Plan is precisely intended to address the pain points in industry development and promote high-quality development of the IoT industry in the “15th Five-Year Plan” period.

The Plan sets clear quantitative targets: by 2028, more than 50 advanced and applicable standards will be drafted and revised, 10 billion-level connection and 15 million-level connection application areas will be cultivated and developed, the number of IoT terminal connections will be targeted to reach the hundred-million-level, and the core IoT industry scale will exceed 3.5 trillion yuan.

Wu Yin, a professor at the School of Economics, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, said in an interview with Shanghai Securities News that this Plan is the first to list “hundred-million-level connections” and the “3.5 trillion yuan scale” as core targets, signaling that China’s IoT industry has entered a stage of deeper value cultivation.

Deepening the integration of the Internet of Things with artificial intelligence

The Plan positions application scenarios as the core driver of industry development, covering three major areas—production, consumption, and social governance—and promoting deep integration between IoT and the real economy. In the production sector, it focuses on intelligent manufacturing, smart agriculture, smart power grids, and smart transportation, enabling digital transformation of traditional industries through IoT. In the consumption sector, it emphasizes smart homes, connected vehicles, remote healthcare, and digital education, unlocking new demand for people’s livelihood services. In the social governance sector, it uses digital twin cities, intelligent control, and risk early warning as key starting points to improve the effectiveness of city operations and public safety.

On the consumer side, smart appliances and home furnishings have become one of the scenarios where IoT is being deployed. A负责人 at a leading domestic smart home enterprise told Shanghai Securities News that the company will seize policy opportunities, increase R&D efforts to integrate AI with home hardware, and build a full-home intelligent integrated solution. It will also improve product standards and after-sales service systems, accelerate the popularization of smart home products, tap potential in the consumer market, and support the cultivation of million-level connection application areas.

The Plan specifically proposes deepening the integration of IoT with artificial intelligence, accelerating the development of advanced intelligent agents with autonomous sensing, control, and execution capabilities, and promoting lightweight deployment of large-scale AI models on terminals and at the edge, while cultivating industry-specific models for key application scenarios. It will also drive the formulation of unified IoT data standards, promote the building of high-quality industry datasets, and release the potential value of IoT data.

Wu Yin said that currently, the business opportunity created by the comprehensive reshaping of AI smart hardware has just begun. IoT is the core carrier for seizing this opportunity. Breakthroughs in AI large-model technology can help address the problems of low-efficiency data processing and the inability to apply intelligence in traditional IoT, enabling massive terminals to truly achieve “intelligent interconnection.” With its complete industrial chain advantages, China is well positioned to secure a leading position globally in the IoT-and-AI integration track.

The Plan also supports a set of measures, including departmental coordination, support for science and technology breakthroughs, the construction of pilot-and-test (middle trial) platforms, industrial-financial integration, and talent cultivation, to form a policy synergy. Industry observers expect that, as the Plan is implemented, China’s IoT industry will enter a new round of rapid high-speed growth and become an important engine for the integration of the digital economy and the real economy.

（Source: Shanghai Securities News）