AI is becoming the core engine for the transformation of traditional manufacturing, and in Huangpu District, eastern Guangzhou, this shift is moving from concept to reality. On February 26, following similar meetings at the provincial and municipal levels, the Guangzhou Development District and Huangpu District held their own "first meeting of the new year"—the District High-Quality Development Conference. The integration of manufacturing and service industries was a key focus, with AI identified as the critical enabler.
The district's performance over the past year has been impressive. Data shows that in 2025, the Guangzhou Development District and Huangpu District achieved a total industrial output value of 830 billion yuan from above-scale industries, with industrial investment exceeding 50 billion yuan. They secured 110 expansion projects each valued at over 100 million yuan, leading the city in both investment scale and project count. The district is now home to more than 420 core AI enterprises, with the sector's scale surpassing 70 billion yuan. It has established the province's first specialized AI industrial park, launched two national AI application pilot bases, and set up the Guangdong OpenHarmony Adaptation Center.
More importantly, as 2026 began, the district had already signed 58 projects with a total investment exceeding 70 billion yuan. Among these, three industrial projects each involve investment and output value surpassing 10 billion yuan—all related to AI, including Tianjie new energy batteries, high-end PCB circuit boards, and AI integrated circuit substrate boards. While debates continue elsewhere on how to merge manufacturing and services, Huangpu is providing its own answer through multi-billion-yuan orders: using AI as the core and robotics as the form to reshape the structure of hundred-billion-yuan industrial chains.
Robotics Outlines an Intelligent Landscape Entering the High-Quality Development Conference venue, a sense of technological advancement was palpable. Low-altitude aircraft, agricultural drones, unmanned vehicles, AI glasses, and various robots—such as greeting and guiding robots, food delivery robots, high-rise facade cleaning robots, inspection robots, and security patrol robots—were on display. The most eye-catching was a formation of robotic dogs dressed in traditional lion dance costumes at the entrance, dancing to festive music and becoming the event's main attraction.
Among them, Jiechuang Intelligent's AI patrol and net-capture robotic dog stood out. This product integrates AI recognition, electromagnetic net capture, and autonomous navigation, performing security patrols, target identification, and emergency response in key locations. "Our self-developed dual-launch electromagnetic net capture device is about to enter mass production, with significantly improved endurance, accuracy, and intelligence, adaptable to more complex scenarios," revealed Sun Chao, Chairman of Jiechuang Intelligent. He also expressed intentions to explore overseas markets, currently engaging with clients in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Similar products at the venue included indoor security patrol robots from Pairobo Robotics, inspection robots from Zhongke Kaichuang, and security patrol robots from Gaoxinxing Robotics. Though varying in form, they conveyed a consistent message: quadruped robots are transitioning from labs to real-world applications, becoming new players in security and inspection.
The market for robotic dogs is heating up. Industry chain data indicates that global shipments of quadruped robots reached approximately 82,000 units in 2025, with China accounting for 80% at 65,000 units. The global market size was about 7 billion yuan, with China representing around 5 billion yuan. Even leading humanoid robot companies like Ubtech, Yushu Technology, and Zhiyuan Robot have early-stage quadruped product lines, with Yushu already achieving profitability through its robotic dogs.
However, humanoid robots represent a larger ambition. On the other side of the venue, Huilun Technology's booth was crowded. Its embodied intelligent humanoid robot, GoMate Mini, was greeting guests at the entrance with precise movements and natural voice interaction. One of only two humanoid robots on site, it was a focal point. Huilun Technology is a strategic move by GAC Group in Huangpu District. GAC plans to invest 200 million yuan to establish a robot headquarters project in Huangpu, forming Huilun Technology to focus on the full industrial chain of embodied intelligent robots. Leveraging GAC's industrial experience and Huangpu's diverse business scenarios, Huilun will receive robust ecosystem support to efficiently close its business model loop.
According to development plans, the project will advance small-batch trial production of core products in 2026 while creating benchmark security applications. Mass production is targeted for 2027, with an expected output value of 500 million yuan that year. Why choose Huangpu? Huilun's response was straightforward: "As the core cluster for Guangzhou's robotics industry, Huangpu offers a complete industrial ecosystem, strong policy support, and ample resource guarantees. This collaboration aligns corporate strengths with regional resources, laying a solid foundation for mutual benefit and synergistic development." In other words, the district provides a full industrial chain, talent, market access, and a government willing to support trial and error.
Whether quadruped or humanoid, the entire robotics industry is poised for significant opportunities under the two-industry integration trend. Liu Yiqiu, Deputy Director of the Super Robot Research Institute (Huangpu), analyzed: "Manufacturing urgently needs flexible, intelligent solutions for personalized production, while services seek more efficient, humanized automation. This drives new markets like smart logistics, unmanned delivery, and collaborative robots."
The institute, established in 2023 by Guangzhou High-tech Zone and South China University of Technology, focuses on cutting-edge robotics R&D, bridging the "last mile" from lab to factory. Liu Yiqiu stated that the institute would act as an "innovation engine" and "conversion bridge": developing core perception, decision-making, and control technologies for complex scenarios; providing integrated "AI+robot" solutions for specific applications like flexible assembly lines and hospital logistics robots; and building an industrial ecosystem to connect academia, enterprise needs, and supply chains, accelerating technology adoption and deepening intelligent, service-oriented integration.
Launching a Computing Power "Arms Race" If robotics is Huangpu's visible "technique," then chips and computing power are its internal "method." Entering the Guangzhou Development District, one senses a different kind of tension—not just for orders, but for intellectual supremacy.
On January 22, the fourth-phase project of Yuexin Semiconductor was officially launched, with an investment of 25.2 billion yuan. The project plans to build a 12-inch mixed-signal specialty process production line with a monthly capacity of 40,000 wafers, focusing on six areas: sensing, transmission, computing, storage, control, and display. It aims to establish an internationally advanced platform for mixed-signal and optoelectronic integration, precisely meeting the urgent needs of AI, edge AI, industrial electronics, and automotive electronics for specialty processes.
Amid semiconductor cycle fluctuations and global capital expenditure tightening, such a large counter-cyclical investment is akin to a "nuclear bomb." "The fourth-phase project tests our survival and development capabilities over the past eight years and reflects our strong confidence in the future and Guangzhou," said Chen Jin, Chairman of Yuexin Semiconductor, revealing the ambition of Huangpu and the Greater Bay Area in the AI chip arena.
The impact of this "bomb" extends further, aiming to blast open the underlying pathway to "AI+." Following Yuexin, the Huangpu AI Chip High-end IC Substrate Project and the AI Computing Power High-end PCB Project were signed, each with investments totaling tens of billions of yuan. In the AI era, computing power is power. Huangpu's logic is simple: whether developing humanoid robots or autonomous driving, you first need capable chips and boards to carry that computing power.
The "Guangzhou Development District Huangpu District Action Plan for Empowering Industries with AI" sets ambitious targets: by 2027, AI intelligent computing supply should reach 50,000 petaflops; by 2030, the AI industry scale should exceed 100 billion yuan, with over 1,000 lightweight AI products and services created. What does 50,000P mean? One petaflop represents one quadrillion calculations per second, indicating that a city-level "strongest brain" is quietly taking shape in Huangpu.
Leveraging the "Huangpu No.1" intelligent computing cluster, China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, Yunxia Technology, Aofei Data, and others are joining forces to create a computing power matrix across "three cities and one island." In the real economy, numbers do not lie. In 2025, emerging manufacturing accounted for 72% of Huangpu's industrial output value, with new energy vehicle output surpassing traditional fuel vehicles for the first time. This is not merely a shift but a genetic recombination within the industrial chain.
The "Huangpu Time" for an 860 Billion Yuan Sprint It is often said that Guangzhou's economy looks to Huangpu, and Huangpu looks to industry. In Guangzhou's 2026 economic picture, Huangpu holds a pivotal position. This year, the district aims for a GDP and fixed-asset investment growth of over 5%, with the total output value of above-scale industries exceeding 860 billion yuan. It plans to introduce over 500 quality industrial projects, including eight projects each worth over 10 billion yuan.
This is a highly challenging goal. With the 2025 industrial output value already at 830 billion yuan, reaching 860 billion yuan requires creating an additional 10 billion yuan in industrial output within a year. To achieve this 5% growth, Huangpu has adopted a "decisive battle stance"—establishing a coordinated system involving departments, towns, streets, and parks, with detailed breakdowns of 29 district-level indicators. From Yuexin to Rongjie Batteries, from GAC Robotics to JD.com's AI Manufacturing Industrial Park, multi-billion-yuan projects are listed on "ongoing, new, and reserve" lists, forming a rolling development cycle.
This sense of urgency stems from strategic positioning for the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. Huangpu aims to surpass one trillion yuan in industrial output value during this period, requiring an average annual growth of about 3.5% over five years. While this seems modest, on such a large base, each percentage point requires billions or even tens of billions in new capacity support.
Standing by the Phoenix Lake in the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City, with tower cranes in the distance and aircraft occasionally taking off from a nearby flight camp, it is hard to imagine that this area was farmland on the urban fringe a decade ago. "Starting at a sprint, beginning with a decisive battle"—this is the lasting impression Huangpu leaves in the spring of 2026. As AI and robotics reshape the global economic landscape at an unprecedented pace, Huangpu, a manufacturing hub once known nationwide for its "development zone spirit," is leveraging its 860 billion yuan industrial base to lift a new, intelligent economic continent worth hundreds of billions. What is happening here may be the most telling microcosm of "Made in China" leaping toward "Intelligent Manufacturing in China."
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