On January 21, the "2025 Shanghai National Economic Performance Report" was released. According to the unified accounting results of the regional gross domestic product, Shanghai's GDP reached 5,670.871 billion yuan in 2025, representing a year-on-year increase of 5.4% calculated at constant prices. The data shows that the city's industrial added value increased by 5.0% year-on-year in 2025. The total output value of industries above a designated size in the city grew by 4.6% compared to the previous year. Notably, the manufacturing output value of Shanghai's three leading industries surged by 9.6% in 2025, with integrated circuit manufacturing output soaring 15.1% and artificial intelligence manufacturing output climbing 13.6%. In 2025, the output value of industrial strategic emerging industries increased by 6.5% year-on-year, with the new energy industry output rising 12.9% and high-end equipment industry output growing 11.1%. The data indicates that through years of intensified systematic planning, Shanghai's three leading industries are spearheading the city's industrial development. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, Shanghai will use advanced manufacturing as its backbone to construct a "2+3+6+6" modern industrial system, create world-class high-end industrial clusters, and build the "Shanghai Manufacturing" brand, with the three leading industries further consolidating their advantages.
The three leading industries are advancing side by side. In 2025, Shanghai steadily implemented the "Several Measures for Shanghai to Further Expand AI Applications," and the city's artificial intelligence industry delivered an impressive performance. Within just over 20 days, five Shanghai technology innovation companies went public in quick succession, demonstrating that Shanghai is creating the most suitable environment for tech firms to thrive. It is understood that Shanghai focuses on both the germination stage ("from 0 to 1") and the leapfrog stage ("from 1 to 10") in enterprise development, having introduced a series of innovations in service models and key factors. The city has explored a new entrepreneurship model suited to the times, achieved technological breakthroughs in AI, and significantly lowered the barriers to starting businesses. Simultaneously, it has paved a new financial pathway from idea conception to capital markets, establishing a complete system that integrates investment and development.
In the integrated circuits sector, Shanghai has initially cultivated an industrial innovation ecosystem characterized by complete industrial chains, advanced technology, talent concentration, and enterprise aggregation. The city has nurtured a group of leading integrated circuit companies, forming a comprehensive industrial chain system. Currently, Shanghai has gathered over 1,200 integrated circuit enterprises, attracting approximately 40% of the nation's industrial talent and nearly 50% of its industrial innovation resources. The city has formulated and implemented systematic support policies for integrated circuit industry development, accelerating breakthroughs in key core technologies and the construction of common industrial technology platforms. It has cultivated an "integrated body with two wings" industrial spatial layout, establishing five specialized integrated circuit industrial parks including the Integrated Circuit Design Industrial Park, Intelligent Sensor Industrial Park, Oriental Core Port, and Shanghai Electronic Chemicals Zone.
Biopharmaceuticals represent one of the three leading industries where Shanghai is concentrating elite resources for rapid development and breakthroughs. After 30 years of development, the Zhangjiang Biopharmaceutical Cluster, with Zhangjiang Science City as its core, has become one of China's regions with the most complete biopharmaceutical industrial chain, the best ecosystem, the highest concentration of talent, and the most vibrant innovation. Looking ahead to the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, Shanghai will be guided by "R&D transformation and Shanghai manufacturing," focusing on innovative drugs and high-end formulations, high-end medical devices, synthetic biotechnology, cell and gene therapy, and other fields. The city will deepen frontier technology R&D and industrialization, continuously optimize the "1+5+X" biopharmaceutical industry layout, and accelerate the construction of a world-class biopharmaceutical industry cluster.
Targeted cultivation measures will be implemented based on the growth patterns of high-growth enterprises. Within the newly released 2025 Shanghai economic development report card, the growth data for the new energy industry is particularly encouraging. In the previously issued "Recommendations of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for Shanghai's National Economic and Social Development," new energy and green low-carbon initiatives were included for the first time as Shanghai's emerging pillar industries for the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, reflecting the high importance placed on this sector. It was pointed out that as one of Shanghai's advantageous industries, building a "multi-energy integration, comprehensive demonstration" energy equipment development system is crucial for seizing opportunities in modern industrial system construction and new-type industrialization during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, representing an important development path for exploring Shanghai's dual-carbon transformation as a megacity.
From an industry trend perspective, nuclear power entered a golden decade of development starting in 2024, with more than ten nuclear power projects approved annually and equipment investment exceeding 100 billion yuan. Shanghai possesses full industrial chain service capabilities in the nuclear field, boasting a complete system encompassing front-end design (China Nuclear Engineering & Construction), equipment manufacturing (Shanghai Electric, three major power companies), and industrial chain support (Nuclear Power Engineering Quota Station). The city holds a high position in the industrial chain, with layouts in nuclear energy, gas turbines, wind power, photovoltaic, coal power, hydrogen energy, energy storage, and smart grids, forming a comprehensive multi-energy complementary energy equipment industrial chain system. It was stated that Shanghai will fully leverage the resource advantages of a megacity to provide "first-set" application scenarios for energy equipment, enabling verification and promotion to open up demand markets. Projections indicate that by the end of the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, Shanghai's energy equipment industry output value is expected to exceed 500 billion yuan.
It was further indicated that Shanghai will next build on key priorities, leveraging the leading role of the three pillar industries—integrated circuits, biopharmaceuticals, and artificial intelligence. The city will continue to focus on and amplify the advantages of high-growth enterprises in smart technology and health technology sectors. Using manufacturing digital transformation as a key driver, Shanghai will accelerate the deep application of basic software, industrial software, and industrial internet product services in manufacturing digital transformation scenarios. The city will deepen the carrier construction for future industries in areas like Zhangjiang, Lingang, and Da Linghao Bay, accelerating future industry layout. Seizing the strategic opportunity presented by large AI models, Shanghai will hasten the empowerment of large models across hundreds of industries, achieving the integration of "technology + industry" dual chains and cultivating a batch of AI-centric high-growth enterprises.
It has been learned that Shanghai will implement targeted cultivation measures aligned with the growth patterns of high-growth enterprises. The government will act as a guide and facilitator, focusing on promoting transformation, change, and grafting to generate new models and new species of innovative high-growth enterprises. For "disruptive" types, the focus will be on promoting more technological conversion, strengthening linkages between specialized industrial parks and university science parks, and supporting high-quality projects for mass production in specialized industrial parks. For "fission-type" growth, efforts will center on encouraging more spin-offs from large enterprises, supporting the establishment of new companies by large firms through methods like industry-finance integration, with particular support for increased incubation and entrepreneurship from large enterprises' central research institutes and corporate technology centers. For "blue ocean-type" ventures, the priority remains optimizing the industrial ecosystem, balancing both transplanting seedlings and scattering seeds, and guiding companies to cross boundaries and open new fronts through approaches like "one plan per industry" for future industries.
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