From farmland to a high-tech park, and now towards a world-class science city, Zhangjiang celebrated its 34th anniversary yesterday. Over the past 34 years, the area has gathered 24,000 enterprises, with the three leading industries of integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence flourishing. According to the Shanghai Zhangjiang Science City Construction Management Office, in the first half of 2026, the total industrial output value above designated size for the science city's three leading industries reached 82.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.8%. Looking back at 2025, the total scale of the three leading industries exceeded 462.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.6%, accounting for 22% of the city's total output in the same industries, with the supporting role of hardcore industries becoming increasingly prominent.
Zhangjiang's Efficient Industrial Synergy Enables 'Zero-Distance Flow' of Innovation
A complete industrial ecosystem, comprehensive transformation support facilities, and dense innovation entities continue to provide solid support for the implementation of cutting-edge technologies and the launch of industrial projects. Zhangjiang Robot Valley is becoming one of the most vivid examples of cluster development in the science city. Recently, Qiyuan Xinchuang officially signed a contract to enter Zhangjiang Robot Valley, establishing a humanoid robot research and development and industrialization headquarters. According to the plan, this new headquarters for embodied intelligence industries will continue to invest heavily in R&D over the next three years, building a fully self-developed Primemind base model. It will also construct a product design and innovation center, launching no fewer than two new consumer-grade robot products each year. At the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, Qiyuan Xinchuang's globally first personal robot, "Qiyuan Q1," and the globally first transformable personal robot, "Qiyuan T1," became popular exhibits. They not only showcased hardcore technological capabilities such as intelligent interaction, flexible movement, and autonomous shape-shifting but also allowed visitors to intuitively experience the new form of consumer-grade personal robots entering daily life through practical demonstrations like companion interaction and scenario-based services. A representative from Qiyuan Xinchuang stated that they plan to build a large-scale, full-scenario testing and assembly base in Zhangjiang, aggregating full-chain data, and invite global AI creators to jointly develop extended application scenarios based on Qiyuan robots.
The rapid implementation of scientific projects and efficient mass production of technologies are inseparable from the strong support of the local supply chain system. As the country's first platform in the embodied intelligence field to offer a one-stop supply chain service covering "design-manufacturing-verification-development-service," the Zhangjiang South Embodied Intelligence Supply Chain Platform will provide full-process services, from rapid whole-machine assembly, small-scale trials, and pilot testing to core component support and professional maintenance. This will help innovative robot companies achieve "one-day matching, three-day prototyping, and one-week trial production," accelerating the industrialization process of embodied intelligence. Zhangjiang AI Innovation Town has launched three full subsidies of one million yuan for computing power vouchers, model vouchers, and data vouchers. It has also established a 2 billion yuan AI seed fund, a 2 billion yuan link fund, a 1 billion yuan embodied intelligence fund, a 10 billion yuan future industry fund, and ten hardcore policies including low-cost space, rental subsidies, and financing subsidies, making innovation costs among the lowest in the country. The industrial synergy advantage of "upstairs and downstairs being upstream and downstream" allows laboratory innovations to complete the iterative upgrade from technology prototype to marketable product without needing to be transferred elsewhere, continuously strengthening the competitiveness of the leading industry clusters. Currently, Zhangjiang Science City hosts nearly 2,000 high-tech enterprises, 83 multinational company headquarters (accounting for 1/6 of the city's total), and 197 foreign R&D centers (accounting for 2/3 of the city's total). Among these, there are 116 listed companies and 45 companies listed on the STAR Market.
Cutting-Edge Innovation Continues to Break Through, Source Momentum Accelerates Release
Patients previously paralyzed by spinal cord injuries and unable to grasp objects independently can now control their hands and perform basic limb movements using their thoughts, thanks to an implantable brain-computer interface device developed by Zhangjiang-based company Borenkang Medical, regaining their autonomous mobility. In July, this globally first approved implantable brain-computer interface medical device completed its first clinical application in Shanghai and issued the world's first prescription, moving from a research prototype to clinical practice, truly benefiting the public with cutting-edge technological achievements. This landmark breakthrough is a vivid microcosm of the continuously surging vitality of original innovation in Zhangjiang. Since the start of the year, companies in Zhangjiang have intensively released significant technological achievements. For example, Xuanyu Medical and Shenqi Medical have successively received approval for Class III innovative medical devices. Jingtai Technology announced a key milestone for its independently developed global-first drug development platform based on "generative AI + first principles," featuring a dry-wet closed loop. Ant Lingbo Technology and others have continuously open-sourced four embodied intelligence large models, covering core foundations such as spatial perception, world models, and visual action alignment, strengthening the country's underlying technological capabilities in embodied intelligence.
School-enterprise collaborative innovation is also accelerating. Recently, Fourier Intelligence, in partnership with ShanghaiTech University, established a joint laboratory focused on tackling key technologies in the embodied intelligence healthcare track. Leveraging ShanghaiTech University's research strengths in artificial intelligence, intelligent perception, biomedical engineering, and clinical research, along with Fourier Intelligence's long-term technical accumulation in robot bodies, active interaction, multimodal perception, and healthcare scenarios, the two parties will collaborate on basic theory, key technologies, and clinical applications, guided by real medical and healthcare needs. This will drive embodied intelligence robots from the laboratory to real-world scenarios in the life and health sector. In the future, both parties will further deepen industry-university-research-medicine collaboration, accelerating the transformation of research achievements into clinical applications and industrialization. The collective actions of universities promoting interdisciplinary integration are converging into a core driving force for solving complex scientific problems and nurturing disruptive technologies. Major scientific facilities like the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, hard X-ray facility, and soft X-ray facility are rapidly aggregating. A host of universities and research institutes, including ShanghaiTech University's LYU Chee Woo Science Park, Zhangjiang Fudan International Innovation Center, Tongji University's Shanghai Research Institute for Intelligent Autonomous Systems, the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, the Yangtze River Delta National Innovation Center, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, are firmly establishing themselves here. As the core承载区 of Shanghai's efforts to build a global center for scientific and technological innovation with influence, Zhangjiang Science City is accelerating from the source, driving continuous breakthroughs in cutting-edge innovation.
Cultivating a Fertile Ground for Talent, Activating the Vitality of Young Scientists
The latest statistics show that Zhangjiang Science City has 500,000 diverse innovative talents, with over 70% of them in the three leading industries of integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence. What makes the science city, which gathers various innovative talents, so attractive? In Zhangjiang, a place highly concentrated with hard technology, the core secret to attracting and retaining talent comes not only from the innovation potential of cutting-edge breakthroughs but also from the urban texture of an ecologically livable, humanly warm, and comprehensively serviced environment. Relying on its continuously upgraded soft environment, Zhangjiang provides an ideal soil for scientists, entrepreneurs, and young talents to settle down, pursue their dreams, and realize their aspirations, allowing innovation and life to coexist here. The first phase of the Zhangjiang Water Ring demonstration section (AI Town area) was unveiled this year. As a key component of Pudong's "Five Rings" water network, the Zhangjiang Water Ring is positioned as an "Innovation Cradle Ring," empowering scientific innovation with ecology, aiming to attract young people, scientists, and entrepreneurs to gather and create a "Science Innovation City That Never Sleeps." Zhangjiang's soft power is not only reflected in grand projects but also hidden in the everyday sense of life that people can experience, allowing strivers to find a place to rest and feel the beauty of life amid their fast-paced work. In recent years, through the "Masters Enter Zhangjiang" series of events, multiple art sharers like Shi Yijie, Tan Yuanyuan, Shi Yihong, Ma Xiaohui, and Huang Ying have entered Zhangjiang, using their professional perspectives and artistic insights to build a tangible spiritual home for the people of Zhangjiang. Starting from May 1st, the fully upgraded "Youth Innovation 15 Policies" were officially implemented. The expansion and quality improvement of the "Two 100 Millions" became a major highlight, allowing more young people to enjoy the dual benefits of low-rent youth apartments and low-rent entrepreneurial spaces. As a demonstration project for the youth talent community, Nash Community has served over 10,000 young people in Zhangjiang.
Focusing on Zhangjiang's New Journey, Accelerating the Implementation of Five Major Actions
In April last year, the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee reviewed and approved the "Action Plan for Focusing on Zhangjiang's New Journey to Accelerate the Construction of a World-Class Science City," sounding the clarion call for a new round of industrial ecosystem improvement. Following the requirements, Zhangjiang Science City is fully advancing the "Five Major Actions": optimizing the layout of scientific innovation, cultivating strategic scientific and technological forces, fostering world-class enterprises, attracting and nurturing scientific talents, and enhancing the science and innovation ecosystem. An official from the Zhangjiang Science and Technology Construction Office stated that the science city is reshaping the innovation landscape and promoting industrial upgrading through the optimization of the scientific innovation layout. It is focusing on the Gaoke Middle Road development belt to create a "nuclear explosion point" for scientific innovation, leveraging national strategic scientific and technological forces to generate cutting-edge innovation results. It will continue to strengthen the three leading industries of integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence, while also laying out future industries such as future intelligence, future health, and future space, seizing industrial opportunities through various innovation platforms. Through the action of cultivating strategic scientific and technological forces, it is building a solid foundation for innovation, optimizing the collaborative sharing of major scientific facilities, attracting and fostering high-level research institutions, and closing the loop of industry, academia, research, and application. Through the action of fostering world-class enterprises, it is improving full-cycle services, continuously supplying innovative spaces, cultivating various scientific and innovative enterprises in a gradient manner, and empowering leading enterprises to grow and go global. At the same time, the science city is attracting a wide range of talents through the action of attracting and nurturing scientific talents, improving housing and public services to allow talents to settle in Zhangjiang. Through the action of enhancing the science and innovation ecosystem, it is coordinating the construction of hardware and software, focusing on building a livable, business-friendly, and innovation-friendly Zhangjiang Science City, and improving transportation, commercial, and ecological facilities to create a vibrant "Science Innovation City That Never Sleeps." By focusing on its core business, concentrating on tackling key problems, and gathering talents, Zhangjiang continuously strengthens its core competitiveness, accelerates the construction of a world-class science city, and embarks on a new journey.
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