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

Six Major Future Industries: Who is Accelerating Breakthroughs?

On March 20, Suzhou, recognized as the “strongest prefecture-level city,” announced at the Suzhou Business Conference the ten key emerging industries and ten key future industries to focus on in the next phase, signaling a clear intention to concentrate advantages and open new avenues.

Not long ago, the national “14th Five-Year Plan” clearly proposed to target key areas leading future development, establish a full-chain cultivation system for future industries, and promote quantum technology, bio-manufacturing, hydrogen energy, nuclear fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces, embodied intelligence, and sixth-generation mobile communications as new economic growth points.

Since the term “future industries” was first proposed in 2024, government work reports have consecutively addressed it for three years. The latest statement on “constructing a full-chain cultivation system for future industries” indicates that the development of these highly disruptive industries has entered a new stage.

As noted by Zheng Zhajie, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, these industries are on the “eve” of technological breakthroughs; the future industries of today may very well be tomorrow’s emerging pillar industries.

The opportunities are unprecedented; for localities, whether they can quickly identify their positioning and form a leading advantage in the new round of industrial competition is crucial to their future fate. Analyzing the regional map of the six future industry tracks, who is accelerating breakthroughs?

01

“Blossoming Everywhere” Type

Representative Industry: Embodied Intelligence

Among the six future industries prioritized by the state, embodied intelligence is undoubtedly the hottest track at present. According to incomplete statistics, at least 21 provinces in the country have explicitly mentioned the keywords “embodied intelligence” or “robots” in their 2026 government work reports, making it a field of industrial layout that various regions are eager to engage in.

At the same time, all 31 provinces across the country have made deployments regarding artificial intelligence and smart economy-related fields, hoping to gain an advantage in the new round of competition.

This “blossoming everywhere” pattern reflects the unique attributes of the embodied intelligence industry: a long industrial chain, diverse technological routes, and broad application scenarios. The multi-path exploration around the embodied intelligence industry in various regions is also accelerating.

The year 2025 is referred to by the industry as the “year of mass production” for humanoid robots. A recent report from the globally renowned technology research firm Omdia shows that Chinese humanoid robot manufacturers lead the world; by 2025, all six of the top global shipments will be from China, with Shanghai’s Zhiyuan and Fourier entering the global top ten.

In the eyes of the industry, Shanghai is the “easiest and fastest city for mass production” in the domestic embodied intelligence field.

According to estimates, the core components required for humanoid robots, as well as the invisible data and control algorithms, can be fully assembled within a straight-line radius of 150 kilometers centered around Shanghai. The leading hardware supply chain in the Yangtze River Delta, along with Shanghai’s long-standing artificial intelligence industrial foundation and talent advantages, collectively press the fast-forward button for the mass production of “Shanghai-branded” embodied intelligence.

On this basis, Shanghai has further proposed to deepen the implementation of the “Artificial Intelligence +” initiative, strengthen the construction of computing power facilities, industry corpora, vertical models, and promote the widespread application of new generation smart terminals and intelligent agents. Nationwide, embodied intelligence is approaching a critical juncture from technological validation to commercial landing—when the flexibility of the entity has reached the practical stage, the next competition will be about whose “work capacity” is stronger.

At this year’s “First Meeting of the New Spring” in Guangdong, provincial party secretary Huang Kunming emphasized the need to make embodied intelligence “work,” sending a clear signal. Prior to this, the “Guangdong Province Action Plan for High-Quality Development Empowered by Artificial Intelligence (2025-2027)” explicitly proposed to accelerate the creation of a globally influential “Artificial Intelligence + Manufacturing” integrated development demonstration zone.

It is evident that, as a major manufacturing province in the country, Guangdong is focusing on application demonstrations and promotion—its manufacturing scale accounts for about 1/8 of the national total, encompassing all 31 types of manufacturing, as well as ten trillion-yuan industrial clusters, including the new generation of electronic information, undoubtedly providing a rich “experimental field.”

From the government work report, while many localities’ expressions regarding embodied intelligence are still in the “layout” and “cultivation” phase, some provinces represented by Guangdong have already targeted more segmented tracks. For example, Guangdong mentioned, “accelerate the high-level application of artificial intelligence across all fields and sectors,” cultivate a batch of large models in vertical fields and specialized small models, and accelerate the construction of industrial innovation platforms such as embodied intelligence training grounds.

Additionally, the Shandong provincial government work report also proposed “building an embodied intelligence robot training ground system,” and Zhejiang has explicitly stated its active creation of national pilot bases for the application of embodied intelligence and artificial intelligence.

Beijing has turned its focus to open scenarios. According to the recently released “Action Plan for Technological Innovation and Industry Cultivation of Embodied Intelligence (2025-2027)” from Beijing, it will open application scenarios in phases, including research and education, automotive production, and commercial retail, giving priority to promoting the large-scale landing of 10,000 embodied robots and cultivating a trillion-level industrial cluster, while also exploring application solutions for 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 of future industries is long, with high risks and strong uncertainties, requiring reasonable layouts tailored to local conditions.

From another perspective, future industries are not solely the exclusive battlefield of a few economically powerful provinces; other regions can also achieve characteristic breakthroughs based on their industrial endowments.

For example, with its rich agricultural raw material resources and other advantages, Heilongjiang has become an important pillar in the domestic bio-manufacturing field. In 2024, the Suiha Daqi bio-manufacturing cluster was officially included in the “national team,” becoming the only national-level advanced manufacturing cluster in the bio-manufacturing sector.

Data shows that, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the number of backbone enterprises in Heilongjiang’s bio-manufacturing sector increased from less than 80 to 194, with an output value exceeding 100 billion yuan and an average annual growth rate exceeding 10%. According to the Heilongjiang provincial government work report, this year will accelerate the development of the bio-economy and carry out a new round of bio-economy “double hundred projects,” with key bio-economy industries continuing to maintain revenue growth of over 10%.

Similarly, in the bio-manufacturing sector, provinces such as Chongqing, Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia are also making efforts to layout. Among them, the Chongqing municipal government work report proposed “establishing the Chongqing Bio-Manufacturing Research Institute and supporting the innovation drug ecosystem development in Chongqing International Bio-City”; Yunnan targets “cultivating bio-manufacturing industrial parks,” while Hainan specifically mentions “marine bio-manufacturing.”

Another future industry that has great potential due to regional resource endowments is hydrogen energy.

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

Unlike fossil energy, hydrogen cannot be directly extracted; it must be produced from water or fossil fuels as a “secondary energy.” This characteristic determines the importance of resource endowment for the layout of the hydrogen energy industry.

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

It mentions that by 2025, a batch of “green electricity hydrogen ammonia methanol” landmark projects such as China Energy Construction Songyuan will be completed and put into production, with total production capacity leading the country; Changchun, Songyuan, and Baicheng were selected as the first batch of hydrogen energy regional pilot areas in the national energy sector; and the country’s first hydrogen energy cultural tourism train has successfully entered operation.

Recently, Jilin Provincial Party Secretary Huang Qiang also specifically experienced riding the hydrogen energy train during an inspection, stating the need to “let hydrogen energy trains run across Jilin.”

As one of China’s nine million-kilowatt-level wind and solar power generation bases, Jilin has abundant green electricity resources; at the same time, its old industrial base provides support for the development of the entire industrial chain: enterprises like FAW and CRRC Changchun are deeply engaged in hydrogen energy equipment manufacturing, while the province’s dense chemical industry cluster creates a natural market for green hydrogen consumption. These advantages also form the confidence for Jilin to aim for the “Northern Hydrogen Valley.”

It is noteworthy that on March 16, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other three departments jointly issued a notice on “conducting pilot projects for comprehensive hydrogen energy applications,” opening up greater space for industry development. Experts have analyzed that its biggest highlight is to open up a “new track” for the hydrogen energy industry—from its previous main application in fuel cell vehicles to clearly expanding into industrial fields such as steel, chemicals, and shipping, marking the industry’s development from “single transportation demonstration” to a new stage of “full-scenario large-scale commercialization.”

In this regard, some provinces have already made deployments. For instance, Inner Mongolia specifically mentioned in its government work report “to strengthen the coupling application of green hydrogen with metallurgy, chemicals, and synthetic biology”; Gansu has focused on the construction of hydrogen energy equipment and other projects, proposing to create a batch of landmark application scenarios.

03

Leading Type

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

In contrast, future industries such as quantum technology, nuclear fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces, and 6G, due to extremely high technical barriers and talent thresholds, are currently limited to competition among a few “leading players.”

In the field of quantum technology, Anhui is the absolute leader. The “2024 Global Future Industry Development Index Report” shows that Anhui’s Hefei ranks second globally in the quantum industry, second only to San Francisco, USA. Among the top 20 quantum enterprises globally, four are from China, three of which are from Anhui. By the end of 2025, the number of enterprises in Anhui’s quantum industrial chain has exceeded 100, ranking first in the country.

Currently, the global quantum industrialization has entered a “sprint” phase. According to Anhui’s latest deployment, by 2026, it aims to build quantum computing R&D platforms and deeply implement the “thousand-scene” action for quantum information, accelerating the application transformation of quantum technology.

In the field of nuclear fusion energy, an analysis of government work reports from various regions for 2026 shows that only Anhui, Hubei, and Sichuan have explicitly listed it as a key development direction.

This is closely related to the core innovation resources in the three regions: Anhui relies on the technical accumulation of the Institute of Plasma Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sichuan has a strong nuclear industry foundation and core forces like the Southwest Institute of Physics, and Hubei supports its development with the J-TEXT device of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and its top disciplines.

Additionally, as the “cradle of China’s nuclear power industry,” Shanghai continues to invest in nuclear fusion as a capital link. The Shanghai Future Industry Fund has invested in companies like Xinghuan Juyou, Dongsheng Fusion, Yixi Technology, and China Fusion Energy Co., Ltd., initially forming a relatively complete and diversified nuclear fusion industrial chain.

The clustering effect in the 6G industry is also significant. From the 2026 government work reports, only Beijing, Shanghai, and Jiangsu have clearly mentioned the 6G industry and have achieved landmark results—Beijing’s 6G small-scale experimental network has been built first, Shanghai has formulated and implemented a 6G future industry cultivation plan, and Jiangsu has successfully established the world’s first 6G outdoor experimental network.

Looking ahead to the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, provinces such as Guangdong, Anhui, Hubei, Sichuan, and Heilongjiang have also clearly released layout signals, and competition in the 6G track is continuously spreading.

Moreover, in the field of brain-computer interfaces, from the perspective of industrial chain layout, key enterprises are mainly concentrated in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai region, with leading enterprises like Borui Kang, Brain Tiger Technology, Shen Nian Technology, and Qiang Nao Technology rooted there; Beijing, Tianjin, Guangdong, Shaanxi, Hubei, and Sichuan have also gathered a number of brain-computer interface-related enterprises based on their scientific research capabilities.

More provinces are eager to try: Chongqing, Shandong, Shanxi, Jiangxi, Heilongjiang, and Hainan have all made layouts for brain-computer interfaces in 2026, striving to position themselves in the new track. This industrial race, which is about to reshape the regional landscape, has just begun.

(Disclaimer: The content and data in this article are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice. Please verify before use. Any actions taken based on this are at your own risk.)

Reporter | Cheng Xiaoling Liu Xuqiang

Editor | Duan Lian Liu Yanmei Yi Qijiang

Proofreader | Zhang Yiming

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(Editor: Wang Zhiqiang HF013)