Ubtech's humanoid robot Walker S2 recently entered the country's first 5G fully-connected flexible smart manufacturing factory for wind power, performing tasks such as transporting and sorting. This "New Guangdong Product" has expanded from initial applications in new energy vehicle manufacturing to numerous industrial scenarios worldwide, including aviation manufacturing, 3C electronics, smart logistics, and semiconductor manufacturing. The industrial advantage of "New Guangdong Products" is particularly prominent. In the global humanoid robot supply chain, China accounts for approximately 63% of the share, with one out of every three industrial robots and one out of every eight service robots originating from Guangdong. On January 26, the fifth session of the 14th Guangdong Provincial People's Congress opened. The provincial government work report explicitly stated the goal of building an industrial science and technology innovation center with global influence and accelerating the cultivation and development of new productive forces. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Guangdong's regional innovation capability has led the nation for nine consecutive years, with the "Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou" innovation cluster ranking among the top globally. In 2025, Guangdong's total societal R&D investment is projected to reach 535 billion yuan, with an R&D intensity of 3.6%. The leap in industrial capability is directly reflected in the continuous expansion of trillion-yuan industrial clusters; Guangdong currently boasts nine such clusters. Industries like ultra-high-definition video are poised to join the "trillion-yuan club." Looking ahead to the "15th Five-Year Plan," cultivating more trillion-yuan industrial clusters has become key to consolidating Guangdong's future competitive advantage. Experts interviewed suggested creating more application scenarios to drive the deep integration of technology and industry, and continuously optimizing the collaborative innovation model of "industry posing challenges."
During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Guangdong focused on the mutual reinforcement of industry and technology, maintaining the top position in regional innovation capability for nine consecutive years. It has cumulatively established six national-level manufacturing innovation centers and three national industrial innovation centers. Among the 104 industrial products for which the state publishes output data, Guangdong's output accounts for over 10% in 44 categories. Sustained investment in science and innovation is a crucial support for Guangdong's maintained competitiveness. Guangdong's societal R&D investment has ranked first in the nation for nine consecutive years. This year's provincial government work report mentioned that the projected R&D intensity for 2025 is 3.6%, the "Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou" innovation cluster has jumped to the global top spot, forming a sound industry-university-research system and an extensive international science and technology cooperation network. Driven by technological innovation, the transformation of old and new growth drivers in Guangdong's industrial development is accelerating. In 2025, the value-added of advanced manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing accounted for over 50% and 30% of the value-added of industries above designated size, respectively. Industries such as artificial intelligence, robotics, biomedicine, integrated circuits, and ultra-high-definition video firmly occupy the top tier nationally; the digital industry revenue exceeded 8 trillion yuan, ranking first in the country. Xiang Xiaomei, former Vice President and Researcher at the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, stated that Guangdong is taking the "integration of clusters and chains" as its main development thrust. On one hand, it is promoting rapid growth in emerging industries like low-altitude economy, new energy vehicles, and new-type energy storage. On the other hand, it is proactively laying out future industries such as embodied intelligent robots, quantum technology, and bio-manufacturing to seize development opportunities, gradually forming a number of sub-industry clusters with leading comprehensive strength.
The performance of the robotics industry is particularly outstanding. In 2025, the output of industrial robots in Guangdong increased by 31.2% year-on-year, accounting for 40% of the national total, while the output of service robots grew by 11.2% year-on-year, accounting for 80% of the national total. The number of robotics-related enterprises exceeded 160,000, ranking first in the country. "From the release of the first Walker S2 humanoid robot to the 1,000th unit rolling off the production line, it took us only half a year. Guangdong's vast manufacturing scale and complete supply chain system provide crucial support for the rapid iteration and industrialization of robotics technology," revealed Zhou Jian, founder, Chairman, and CEO of Ubtech. In 2025, the delivery volume of Walker S2 exceeded 500 units, with an annual production capacity surpassing 1,000 units. The production capacity for industrial humanoid robots is expected to exceed 10,000 units in 2026. Traditional industries form the foundation of Guangdong's manufacturing sector. Traditional manufacturing industries like automobiles, petrochemicals, and home appliances account for over 70% of the value-added of industries above designated size. Six out of the ten strategic pillar industrial clusters also fall within the traditional industry category. Promoting their transformation and upgrading is of great significance for Guangdong to build a modern industrial system. Currently, the results of this transformation are beginning to show: the province has cumulatively promoted the digital transformation of over 44,000 industrial enterprises above designated size, accounting for about 60% of the total; AI empowerment measures were introduced early on, green manufacturing is being fully implemented, and the number of related demonstration units leads the nation.
Many enterprises have achieved leaps through technological innovation. For example, TCL transformed from an early communication equipment manufacturer focused mainly on telephones into a technology group involved in smart terminals, semiconductor displays, and new energy photovoltaics, with annual revenue exceeding 300 billion yuan. In 2025, its AI applications generated comprehensive benefits of over 1 billion yuan. During the transformation and upgrading of Guangdong's traditional manufacturing, "New Guangdong Products" such as next-generation electronic information, smart home appliances, and intelligent equipment continue to emerge. Leveraging a strong industrial base and complete industrial chains, they are continuously refreshing the reputation of "Guangdong Smart Manufacturing." However, in the process of mutual reinforcement between technology and industry in Guangdong, common challenges remain to be solved. These include insufficiently tight integration of the innovation chain and industrial chain, low efficiency in the commercialization of research results, dependence on external sources for some core technologies, and the need to accelerate the pace of transferring innovations from the laboratory to the market. In the view of Xie Baojian, Special Researcher at the Guangdong Provincial Government Counsellors' Office and Professor at the School of Economics, Jinan University, "industry posing challenges" is key to solving these problems. It involves identifying, extracting, and refining the "visible yet not easily apparent" industrial demands to ultimately form a precise list. During this year's Guangdong Two Sessions, Wu Xueming, Standing Committee Member of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Standing Committee Member of the Guangdong Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce, and Chairman of the Greater Bay Area Youth Association, similarly recommended implementing an "industry posing challenges" mechanism. Provincial departments could collaborate with leading enterprises to regularly publish lists of urgent industrial technology needs, using these as important criteria for research project approval and laboratory evaluation, ensuring R&D directions consistently address the "real problems" of industrial development.
Simultaneously, it is essential to build a solid foundation for technological supply. "Being able to identify the real problems is only the first step; the key lies in effectively solving them," Xie Baojian stated. This requires breakthroughs in both key core technologies and frontier-leading technologies, as well as strengthening foundational industrial technologies and technologies that fill the gaps in the industrial chain, ultimately forming a virtuous cycle where demand pulls supply and supply creates demand. The Guangdong Provincial Government Work Report indicates that in 2026, Guangdong will cultivate more emerging pillar industries and forge more hundred-billion-yuan and trillion-yuan level emerging industrial clusters. This is also an important measure for Guangdong to cultivate new productive forces and reshape its industrial competitive landscape. Xie Baojian analyzed that trillion-yuan emerging industrial clusters are characterized by significant scale effects, strong innovation capabilities, and resilient industrial chains. They can not only reduce costs and improve efficiency through upstream and downstream collaboration but also accelerate technology iteration and result commercialization through the cluster ecosystem, becoming the main engine for economic growth. However, from an industrial structure perspective, more than half of Guangdong's existing trillion-yuan clusters belong to traditional industries, leaving room for increasing the proportion of strategic emerging industries. Meanwhile, the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries are entering a "deep-water zone," and the development of emerging industries also faces pressure. Against the backdrop of increasingly fierce global industrial competition focusing on high-end manufacturing and emerging fields, seizing the high-end segments of the industrial and value chains has become key for Guangdong to reshape its industrial competitive landscape.
Which areas are expected to become the next trillion-yuan industrial clusters supporting Guangdong's economic development? The ultra-high-definition video industry is the closest to the trillion-yuan scale, with revenue exceeding 900 billion yuan in 2024. Guangdong has initially built a complete industrial chain system for ultra-high-definition video display, covering upstream materials and equipment, midstream panels and modules, and downstream complete machines and applications. It has achieved independent technological capabilities and industry-leading advantages in core materials like polarizers, cutting-edge technologies like printed OLED, and ultra-high-definition recording equipment. Furthermore, industries such as semiconductors and integrated circuits, new-type energy storage, and the low-altitude economy also show potential to challenge the "trillion-yuan club." Currently, Guangdong's low-altitude economy has entered the hundred-billion-yuan scale. There are over 2,000 low-altitude aircraft manufacturing enterprises and more than 15,000 related enterprises, accounting for over 30% of the national low-altitude economy industrial chain enterprises, ranking first in the country. In the global market, consumer-grade and industrial-grade drones account for 70% and 50% of the global market share, respectively.
Strengthening scenario supply is the driving force for industrial development. Scenarios connect technological innovation and industrial implementation; rich scenario supply can effectively guide technological iteration, validate business models, and stimulate market demand. Clear deployments have been made at the policy level. The 2026 Guangdong Provincial Government Work Report proposes to accelerate the cultivation and development of new productive forces, vigorously promote the innovative application of new technologies, products, formats, and models, and use more new scenario applications to drive the accelerated development of new products and industries. Previously, in October 2025, Guangdong issued an action plan to accelerate application scenario innovation and promote the mutual reinforcement of industry and technology. Scenarios where autonomous vehicles drive on roads, drones shuttle through the air, and unmanned ships cruise at sea are rapidly becoming a reality in Guangdong. Taking the low-altitude economy as an example, last year, Panyu District in Guangzhou launched the city's first "air taxi" rapid travel network, offering "air taxi" services. A trip from Shenzhen to Panyu, which typically takes 2 to 3 hours by car, can be completed in less than 30 minutes by "air taxi." "Guangdong itself possesses both policy and technological foundations for the low-altitude economy. Diverse application scenarios provide high-intensity practical environments and clear demand orientation for the low-altitude economy," Xie Baojian said. Technological innovation drives the improvement and upgrading of the industrial chain. The diversified implementation of the low-altitude economy not only opens up vast market space for industrial development but also brings new ideas and models for the utilization of urban space.
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