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Luna Sun

Shanghai aims to cement its status as a national and international driver of innovation by further strengthening its advanced industrial chain, municipal officials said as the city wrapped up its annual policy-setting meetings.
The city is one of China’s most important commercial and technology hubs and aims to remain so with better access to data, talent and capital in a range of areas, from computing power to humanoid robotics and artificial intelligence.
“We are ramping up the supply of key innovation inputs … while fostering a more open and dynamic ecosystem, so that Shanghai can resonate with global innovation and move in step with the world’s technological frontier,” Tang Wenkai, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatisation, said on Saturday.
Tang was speaking at the end of the city’s “two sessions”, an annual gathering of legislators and political advisers held in the run-up to national meetings in March.
Shanghai, long seen as China’s economic bellwether, is pivoting towards technology-driven growth, seeking to revive momentum through “new productive forces”, including AI and advanced manufacturing.
The city posted better-than-expected growth of 5.4 per cent last year and has set a target of around 5 per cent for 2026.
China’s broader economy, however, continues to lose steam, held back by a prolonged property downturn and weak domestic demand. While headline GDP growth reached 5 per cent last year, expansion slowed to a three-year low of 4.5 per cent in the final quarter.
Tang said that as part of the city’s development blueprint, Shanghai would also expand dedicated industrial space and mobilise capital to support innovation, “tapping the 60 billion yuan (US$8.6 billion) national AI fund alongside its own 22.5 billion yuan AI fund and more than 100 billion yuan” in private capital.
The resources would be used to accelerate AI talent training and build national-level AI application hubs in health, finance and manufacturing, Tang added.


Shanghai has also made rapid gains in humanoid robotics in recent years, ranking first in the country in shipments last year, with nearly 40 locally developed models already deployed in real-world scenarios, according to Tang.
In addition, the city will foster a more open and globally connected innovation ecosystem, stepping up support for young entrepreneurs, international collaboration and high-level platforms.
The push for transformative industries, including plans to build “innovation communities” and upgrade specialised industrial parks, is laid out in the city’s government work report, a document reviewing efforts over the past year and the blueprint for the next.
According to the report, the city is looking for an early-mover advantage by stepping up support for frontier sectors such as brain-computer interfaces and fourth-generation semiconductors. It will also target a broader range of next-generation technologies, including quantum computing, cell and gene therapies, 6G, controllable nuclear fusion and silicon photonics.
To support the push, Shanghai has expanded its government-backed future industries fund to 15 billion yuan, up from 10 billion yuan.
“We aim to guide more private capital towards early-stage, small-scale and hard-tech projects, while strengthening the integrated layout of projects, talent, platforms, funds and application scenarios to accelerate the real-world deployment of innovation,” said Luo Dajin, director of the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission.


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The city is striving for an early-mover advantage in the technology of tomorrow, including AI and quantum computing


The city is striving for an early-mover advantage in the technology of tomorrow, including AI and quantum computing.


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Shanghai makes future-tech bid with promise of data, talent and capital

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The city is striving for an early-mover advantage in the technology of tomorrow, including AI and quantum computing

The city is striving for an early-mover advantage in the technology of tomorrow, including AI and quantum computing