The 2026 Zhejiang Province Artificial Intelligence Empowering Manufacturing Pilot List was recently announced, with 12 regions across the province selected. Nanhu District made the list, becoming the only county (city, district) in the electronic information industry sector to be included province-wide.
Opportunities always favor those who are prepared. Nanhu's inclusion in this provincial-level pilot is not a coincidence riding a trend, but rather the result of accumulated strength from a region with a "long slope and thick snow" in manufacturing, combined with a proactive move to sprint ahead in the new AI track — a "natural outcome" finally realized.
Nanhu's confidence is first reflected in the region's science and innovation momentum. Its innovation index ranks eighth in the province and has remained in the top tier for four consecutive years. The R&D expenditure of industrial enterprises above designated size accounts for 3.8% of revenue, ranking first in the city. The district also hosts high-level platforms such as the Zhejiang Tsinghua Yangtze Delta Institute of Advanced Technology, the Tsinghua Flexible Electronics Research Institute, and the Nanhu Research Institute. In recent years, Nanhu District has twice won Zhejiang's "Tiangong Ding" manufacturing award and has also earned the provincial "Science and Technology Innovation Ding."
The electronic information industry chain is an even more solid foundation. As one of the three advantageous industries in Nanhu's "3221" industrial system, the district's electronic information industry has been selected as a provincial-level smart IoT industry cluster collaborative zone. The industry chain is fully connected — from upstream semiconductor materials, midstream device design, manufacturing and testing, to downstream intelligent terminals. Last year, the output value of electronic information enterprises above designated size accounted for nearly 30% of the district's total output value, and 22 national-level specialized and sophisticated "little giant" enterprises have emerged.
The "leading players" carry significant weight. The IGBT modules of district enterprise StarPower Semiconductor rank sixth in global market share, making it the only Chinese company to break into the global top ten in this track. Yuneng Technology's micro-inverters rank second globally and first domestically in sales. Luxshare Precision's consumer electronics components and modules rank second globally and first in mainland China. Changxin Bochuang's optical communication devices hold a 20% domestic market share. To date, the district's electronic information sector has produced 5 listed companies and 1 national-level single champion enterprise.
A solid digital "foundation" is Nanhu District's hard leverage for being selected as a provincial pilot. The district's electronic information industry digital transformation rate of 2.0 and above stands at 87.6%, ranking among the top in the province. Last year, the digitalization level 2.0 coverage rate of industrial enterprises above designated size reached 83.5%, and the district has ranked among the top in the province for comprehensive digital economy strength for five consecutive years — this is the fertile soil where AI can take root.
Computing power and data are the new engines. The Zhejiang Nanhu (China TravelSky) Artificial Intelligence Industrial Park currently has 340P of domestic computing power, with a planned total of 2,300P. Nanhu District has also been included in the provincial-level high-end data annotation base pilot, relying on Nanshu Group to build a full chain of "data collection and annotation — governance — trading."
The logic behind Nanhu District's "AI + manufacturing" development is not "AI for AI's sake," but rather using new engines to activate the old industrial foundation. When it reaches the factory floor, it translates into measurable results. At Jiaxipera Compressor Co., Ltd., on the key rotor assembly line, robotic arms insert compressor rotors onto the main shaft, leaving millimeter-level gaps while maintaining concentricity — a process that once required deep manual intervention, now easily completed by AI-empowered robotic arms. The same applies to Jiaxipera's stator defect detection workstation. With AI deep learning, equipment can now scan products in seconds. Zheng Aiwu, the company's director of technical management, said: "After nearly a year of training, this intelligent agent has truly achieved 'lights-out factory' unmanned quality inspection." Today, AI recognition covers nearly 20 processes at the company.
New industry forces are also rapidly scaling up. Jiushi Intelligence, founded in June 2024, has iterated its unmanned delivery technology and this year has obtained 375 Jiaxing road rights licenses, with more than 70 vehicles in regular operation. In the first half of the year, the company's revenue exceeded 100 million yuan. Today, Nanhu has opened 44 unmanned logistics vehicle application routes and has been selected as a national-level intelligent transportation pioneer application pilot.
In March of this year, the Industrial Embodied Intelligence Training Center of the Zhejiang Tsinghua Flexible Electronics Research Institute "opened," deploying 240 real robots for data collection. On September 18, Nanhu District's first batch of MEgo body-less data collection devices went "live" at the wire harness workshop of Taikang Electronics Co., Ltd. This is "Nanhu speed"! Both AI + industry implementation paths were showcased in real scenarios in Nanhu District as soon as they were born.
Furthermore, Kaileshi's automated warehouse operation scheduling intelligent agent can handle over one million orders per warehouse per day with 99.99% accuracy. Two robot demonstration production lines customized for Luxshare and Minth, along with 12 lightweight workstation scenarios including Changxin Bochuang's optical fiber plug-in inspection, are already running on production lines.
The numbers are even more impressive. From January to July this year, the revenue of 40 AI enterprises above designated size in the district reached 7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 93.9%, with profit growth of 43.5% — both growth rates ranking first in the city.
Becoming a provincial pilot, Nanhu wants more than just a title — it wants to establish a complete playbook. The key approach is "four-chain integration" — strengthening the data chain, solidifying the industry chain, activating the application chain, and improving the service chain. The goal is "model-data resonance": using models to guide data and data to empower models, creating a provincial collaborative innovation pioneer zone and an embodied intelligence manufacturing demonstration zone.
In terms of "top-level" design, Nanhu District has established an Artificial Intelligence Development Office, introduced embodied intelligence consumption vouchers, computing power model vouchers, and innovation vouchers to incentivize enterprises to "try new things." It has also set up a 1 billion yuan AI industry development fund, laid out 14 related industrial parks, and co-founded an AI industry college with Nanhu University and Jiaxing Vocational and Technical College.
On the application side, Nanhu District plays the "open challenge" card. Enterprises pose problems, the government issues challenges, and service providers answer — with a maximum subsidy of 1 million yuan per scenario and a 500,000 yuan provincial benchmark award. "Learn by example" events are also held, inviting AI project implementers to share their experiences firsthand, creating a diffusion trend of "see one, learn one; learn one, spread to many."
On the platform side, an Artificial Intelligence (Embodied Intelligence) Empowerment Center has been established to provide inclusive services for small and medium-sized enterprises. The district is strengthening the embodied intelligence pilot testing platform and data collection platform, forming regional innovation consortiums, and anchoring efforts in microelectronics, industrial handling, optical communications, automotive electronics, consumer electronics, and other fields to explore and implement more scenarios.
Riding the tailwind to go far. From "four-chain integration" to "model-data resonance," from a "robot school" to demonstration production lines one after another, Nanhu has pulled AI out of concepts and pressed it into workshops and real profit-and-loss ledgers. A relevant official from the District Economic and Information Commerce Bureau stated that being the only AI-empowered manufacturing pilot in the electronic information industry province-wide is both an affirmation and a starting gun. Nanhu is sprinting at full speed toward the goal of becoming the "Yangtze River Delta core components and complete machine manufacturing base for artificial intelligence." The future is promising!
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